Opinion Clinton and India’s role in Afghanistan

The Obama Administration has started pulling troops out of Afghanistan this month and has begun to hand over security to Afghan national army and police. The U.S. plans to end the combat role of American military in Afghanistan by 2014.

Washington is fully aware of India’s plans to expand the strategic partnership with the Hamid Karzai regime and Delhi’s intention to step up its training programmes for Afghan security forces.

Until now,Washington has been wary of letting India’s strategic profile rise in Afghanistan. Delhi would want to know if the Obama Administration’s attitude on India’s security cooperation with Afghanistan is evolving in a positive direction.

The question is how explicit and supportive that Clinton might want to be of an Indian security role in Afghanistan at a time when the tensions between the United States and the Pakistan are mounting.

The Pakistan army has been emphatic in its opposition to any Indian role in Afghanistan—political,economic or military.

The United States had been more consistent in its support to India’s role in the economic reconstruction of Afghanistan. During his visit to Kabul in May,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised to add $500 billion to the already impressive figure of $1.5 billion aid that India had delivered since 2002.

Speaking on the eve of the Clinton visit,the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia,Robert Blake emphasised the prospects for Indo-U.S. cooperation in the integration of Afghanistan into a regional framework.

In an interview to an Indian news outlet,Blake said,Washington wants to “work closely with India,with Central Asia,and with Pakistan,to give great impetus to the regional integration that must take place,and to open up trade routes” within the region.

Krishna and Clinton are expected to discuss the prospects for extending the recently signed trade and transit agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. The Pak Army has refused to overland transit for Indian goods that could be exported to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The US policy on promoting long-term political stability and economic growth in Afghanistan,then,is inextricably linked to the nature of Indo-Pak relations.