On perhaps the last high level Indian visit to Afghanistan before elections in both countries, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid once again reiterated India’s backing to Hamid Karzai as he negotiates the drawdown of troops with the US.
In Kandahar on Saturday to inaugurate one of the last major projects initiated in Afghanistan by the United Progressive Alliance Government, Mr. Khurshid drew in sharp relief India’s distinct stand on the region based on its own experience of nation building.
"We have always differed from the many armchair “international experts” on Afghanistan, who say that that the main challenge for Afghanistan’s future is its heterogeneous character, its ancient tribal society, and it’s many different ethnicities. India is also ancient, and is also heterogeneous, and these have always been our strengths. We have never doubted that this has also made Afghanistan strong,’’ he said at Kandahar, one of the holiest sites in the Islamic world housing the cloak of the Prophet at Dargah Kerqa Sharif.
The External Affairs Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the Afghanistan National Agricultural Sciences and Technology University, promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Kabul visit in May 2011.
Kandahar, recalled Mr. Khurshid, was once the hub of international cargo movements in the 1950s and 1960s. And that opportunity could come again as Afghanistan is a resource rich country and has a unique geography that allows it to connect the markets of the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia and China.
Many of the roads and critical infrastructure required for Afghanistan to play the role of regional trading hub are already in place. What is required are effective transit arrangements between Afghanistan and its neighbours to connect it with these large markets.
"We continue to tell the international community that it is a grave mistake not to pay attention to the equally important process economic transition that must also take place in Afghanistan, along with the political and security transitions,’’ he observed.
The Minister also saluted the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), who despite the lack of equipment and the shortage of resources, have made great efforts to protect Indian aid workers and its diplomatic premises in five Afghan cities, notably Jalalabad where an ANSF detachment last year foiled a potentially debilitating attack on the Indian consulate.
India sees the ANSF playing an important role in this year of political and security transition in Afghanistan. India will continue to assist the ANSF in whatever manner is possible within our capacities. "We have always said that a peaceful, prosperous and sovereign Afghanistan that is capable of defending itself is in India’s strategic interest,’’ he said.
