India On Afghanisthan...

With the Taliban in power in much of Afghanistan, India is concerned?that militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad which?have?bases and training grounds along the southern provinces on the border with Pakistan, could now have more ungoverned spaces to carry out attacks against India

India could formulate its long-term Afghan policy keeping in view factors such as America’s need for tactical cooperation with Pakistan, China-Pakistan strategic coordination, and the expansion of China’s power and influence in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. Though India cannot step up its military commitment to Afghanistan beyond what it is doing now, it will still need to closely work with the US, which carries quite ?heavy role in Afghanistan’s political and economic circles, after its departure. Though New Delhi cannot influence the Biden administration’s approach toward Pakistan, efforts should be made to impress upon Washington that US–Pakistan relations should be redefined so as to ensure that any tactical accommodation between them comes with some strings attached.

India?has trained hundreds of Afghan military officers and provided Mi-25 and Mi-35 helicopters and military vehicles to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). In the development area, under the relative safety and protective shield enforced by the presence of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, India built roads, dams, schools and hospitals, set up electricity stations and strung up power lines and invested an estimated $3 billion in projects across the 34 provinces of the country. Some of the bigger projects are the ones like the hydroelectric and irrigation Salma Dam in Herat province with a generating capacity of 42MW of electricity, the Afghan Parliament in Kabul built at a cost of $90 million and the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway built by India's Border Roads Organisation.

For India the stakes are different as it is not just a matter of getting people out, it is a matter of geopolitics and stability of its immediate neighbourhood. As the evacuation out of Afghanistan continues India has to look at all that it is set to lose in terms of the billions invested in infrastructure, in terms of no longer having a friendly government in Kabul and in terms of the implications of having an unstable country in the region.In the coming months, India will carefully assess its security needs especially the threat of growing radicalization and space for pan-Islamic terror groups in its neighborhood.

New Delhi for the moment however seems optimistic of not having to write everything off that India has invested in Afghanistan. India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, addressing a group of opposition leaders in Parliament, has gone on record to say that India's investment was in the friendship of Afghan people and that he was sure that it would get the full value of its investment in Afghanistan

At the end America's withdrawal from Afghanistan is a chance for the South Asian region to look after itself, to look at relations between and within the countries of the region, to ask whether we want peace-and-equality, or intimidation-and-strife. The interests of no country near or far, no great military or economic power, will be hurt if South Asians take steps towards peace and equality. Neither the U.S. nor China would object it. So India has to very decisive steps moving forward.