As intense discussions begin in Bonn this weekend in preparation for the December 5 international conference on Afghanistan, India will for the first time get attention it has never gained during similar international meetings around the globe over the past 10 years.
India goes into the Bonn conference with the tag of being the only country with which Afghanistan has signed a security pact. The U.S., which has invested the most, is still finalising the contours of a similar pact.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said Afghan President Hamid Karzai told him that the strategic pact with India was “universally popular” in Afghanistan and there was “no demand for its ratification” unlike the proposed pact with the U.S.
A few days back, an Indian consortium was given mining rights to the region's biggest untapped iron ore deposits south west of Kabul. And if the confrontation between the west and Iran deescalates over time, India would be the only country with an alternative route largely in place for bringing in men and material for construction and exporting steel from the Hajigak mine.
Remarkable elevation
This marks a remarkable elevation for India from a stage when it was in danger of being relegated to the status of also-consulted countries. At a conference early last year on Afghanistan in Turkey, while France and Japan managed to get invited, India was kept out, as the WikiLeaks tapes reveal, “in deference to Pakistani sensitivities.”
Review
The Bonn conference will be held on Tuesday with 90 delegations, most of them led by Foreign Ministers, and 1,000 participants. But representatives of major players are already in Bonn, reviewing the previous conference in Turkey, trying to cope with the Pakistani spanner of a boycott and trying to figure out the U.S. Silk Road proposal.
The conference has three themes — managing the transition as the West prepares to pull back the bulk of its forces, the political process that ought to be fashioned and long term engagement of the international community in Afghanistan.
It will be on the last aspect that the global community would be closely examining the headway made by India. A gas pipeline from Central Asia will cut through Afghanistan to supply gas to Pakistan and India. And while European companies were agonised on policy issues, India walked away with three out of four Hajigak mine blocks which will actually be a package deal of producing semi-finished products from the ore, a power plant and evacuation routes.
China's success
China has been successful with the Aynak copper mine but unlike India it does not have a visible political role. Apart from agreeing on exploring for hydrocarbons and minerals, the India-Afghanistan strategic pact has a clause for training Afghan security personnel. India had been carrying out small scale training for the security personnel in addition to its longstanding programmes for military cadets from developing countries and the strategic agreement “puts together all that we had been doing so far with the aim to build on it,” said diplomatic sources. These developments add to the soft power India has always enjoyed in Afghanistan through its soap operas and films.
“At last month's conference in Turkey, Mr. Karzai said India had a major role to play in Afghanistan. At the beginning of last year, it was not invited to an Afghan conference in the same country,” said an official, while underlining how the situation has changed.
I see no-one here examining the critical facts of the case. India WAS the most suitable candidate for a security pact. 1.India is closest to Afghanistan and does not have an inherently unstable govt always prone to collapse to extremist ideologies. 2.India seems to be facing a raw material crisis, as evidenced by the clearance of mining blocks in the Himalayas, so its natural that our foreign policy dept would be working overtime to ensure the inking of the pacts 3.India isn't directly a part of the "Imperialist West" 4.The Indian Govt doesn't have money to safeguard the interest of 1.2 billion Indians but it has millions and millions of dollars to send as "aid" to Afghanistan. In view of all these circumstances, India was always the candidate of preference. However we should see to it that post-Western withdrawal, the Taliban doesn't re-emerge and attack Indian installations and facilities, so all this effort isn't wasted.
A lot is expected of the conference at Bonn. Let us hope that India’s voice is heard at that conference. Media has reported Pakistan’s statement that it has no issues with India’s developmental aid to Afghanistan. Our PM is earnest in pursuing the dialogue with Pakistan even with all the problems. It should be possible for PM to ask our Railways to consider feasibility of extending the line from Srinagar to Kabul. This issue needs to be pursued by our think tanks. Central Asian nations, China, Pakistan and India may be having issues that bedevil their relations but that should not stand in the way of improving our trade routes. A lot of benefit would accrue to al the participating nations. If China is envisioning a rail link from Berlin to Beijing via Istanbul, Baghdad, should the south and Central Asian nations think of atleast a railway line between these nations that will spur movement of men and materials. Extending the line from Srinagar will be a first part of this long term project.
A conference of the defeated parties about how to carve up the victor, this must be history's first. You will not be able to take enough copper out of Afghanistan to make one penny. This wealth belongs to the people of Afghanistan.
Well done.We must try to do the same for Myanmar,Bangladesh,and Sri
lanka too.Yahi hai right choice INDIA.Congrates P.M./Govt.
Its a good achievment with tangible benefits. The credit goes to Mr. Manmohan Singh's vision and diplomacy in Afaganistan.
It is a strategic move by India but in the long term, it is always anarchy in Afganistan. When USA and Western Powers walk out, militants will take over the country, Karzai will be out, and all agreements will be canceled.
It is only to be hoped that the US does not adopt its double standards at the Bonn meet when all along while professing strategic alliance and partnerships with India on the one hand,the Americans have been keeping India out of most important meets whenever Pakistan
has objected or rather euphemistically in "deference to Pakistan's
sensitivities".
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