Opinion Dr. Singh,Karzai and Pakistan

The very impressive joint statement issued by PM Manmohan Singh and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai ended with seemingly banal assertion.

New DelhiMay 13, 2011 02:52 PM IST First published on: May 13, 2011 at 02:52 PM IST

The very impressive joint statement issued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Afghan President Hamid Karzai on thursday ended with seemingly banal assertion. The two leaders declared that the new framework for a strategic partnership between Delhi and Kabul is not directed at any other state or group of states.

While Dr. Singh and Karzai had to state this,it is no surprise that much of the international coverage of the PM’s two day visit to Kabul is defining it as part of India’s deepening rivalry with Pakistan in Afghanistan.

For the idea that India is trying to encircle Pakistan by opening a second front against it in Afghanistan has long been a self-evident assumption in any Western analysis of the situation in north-western subcontinent. Pakistani propaganda has been quite successful in projecting that the Indian influence in Afghanistan is part of the problem and that it cannot cooperate with the West in the war on terror,because of India’s Afghan policy.

Even a cursory look at the map would suggest how difficult it is for Delhi to compete with Rawalpindi in Afghanistan. Pakistan has a nearly 2500 km of open border,the Durand Line,with Afghanistan. India on the other hand has no overland geographic access to Afghanistan. Nearly 40 million Pashtuns straddle across the Durand Line,giving Pakistan many instruments of influence in Afghanistan.

Geography and demography,then,put Pakistan,for good or bad,in the driver’s seat. For India,the lack of a land border is at once a blessing as well as a limitation. Because it is once removed India is trusted in Afghanistan,while Pakistan is not.

India’s proposed strategic partnership with Afghanistan must be constructed within the limitations that geography imposes on Delhi’s Afghan policy. This means,India on its own can’t neutralise Pakistan’s influence,negative or positive,in Afghanistan. India can indeed be an important,but necessarily,a secondary player in Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly,the question of security comes at the very end of the joint statement issued by Dr.Singh and Karzai. There too the focus is on law enforcement,counter terrorism,narcotics trafficking,etc.

There is no reference to any military cooperation in the proposed strategic partnership. It is important that Delhi clarifies this point. Otherwise it must be prepared for more intensive Pakistani campaign against India’s Afghan policy.

Delhi must also point to the issue of regional integration highlighted by the joint statement. The two leaders for example underline the importance of Afghanistan as the land bridge between South Asia and Central Asia. Delhi and Kabul know that they can’t realise this potential of Afghanistan without cooperation from Pakistan. The two leaders also emphasise the relevance of SAARC,of which Pakistan is a member,in developing major trans-regional infrastructure projects.

In announcing India’s commitment to build a strategic partnership with Afghanistan,Dr. Singh has embarked on a bold course. This in turn would need supple diplomacy that will calm some of the regional turbulence generated by his visit to Kabul.