Indo-Afghan Relations: Evaluating A Strategic Framework
By,Dr. GOURI SANKAR NAG, Associate Professor, Dept of Political Science, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, West Bengal
India Afghanistan strategic relations are based on their historical and cultural ties, time-tested bonhomie and recognition of each other’s interests in the post-colonial scenario in Asia and sustained by persistent diplomatic and economic exchanges. Apart from the ancient Silk Route between South Asia and Central Asia, the 3000km long Great Trunk Road (known as GT Road) pioneered by Afghan emperor Sher Shah Suri in 16th century, which links India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a prime example of the grand vision of collective prosperity in South Asia.
The key to any strategic calculation in South Asia is to work out to revive this glory of togetherness and close co-operation in spite of inimical external interference as we have seen during the Cold War era when Pakistan joining the western bloc invited the Cold War tension in the South Asian region.
Also in dealing with invasive designs of Pakistan in Kashmir, India had to devise her Afghan strategy in such a manner that such strategy’s Pakistan-centric orientation was actually to keep Pakistan engaged on both fronts and thereby to bring sort of relative relief on India’s western border. Since according to experts like Sandra Destradi, India’s western frontier bordering Pakistan has been a potential conflict zone compared to her eastern theatre which is less-militarised and less-tensed. Hence, such policy was India’s strategic imperative. So, this is an important component of my conceptual frameworkthat Iam going to posit.
Secondly, since independence Kashmir has been India persistent trouble spot requiring her to play cautious and constructive role. But often being unable to tackle the situation prodigiously India’s resort to securitization of Kashmir problem has been responsible for the backlash from the Muslim world. This partly justifies India’s increasing commitment and engagement in Afghanistan as a strategic tool to create a favourable international opinion and thereby to create a spaceuseful enough to discourage militancy in Kashmirvis-a-vis Pakistani tactics to use Afghanistan as its ‘strategic depth’. Hence Kashmir angle in India’s Afghan strategy cannot be ruled out.
The third dimension of India’s Afghan strategic thinking is her understanding of Afghanistan’s crucial geo-economic location which is instrumental for India’s growing western surge for energy and commercial benefits. On one side, Afghanistan is a corridor to reach out to the natural resource-rich central Asian republics and on the other hand, Afghanistan can be India’s triumph card to tag Iran and to create an alternative corridor to avoid China’s ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR). Keeping this in view, what is noteworthy is that although traditionally India is not a donor country, it has started providing and pledging huge economic assistance to Afghanistan, “making it the fifth largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan” (Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri: Neither A Hawk Nor A Dove, Penguin Viking, 2015, p545).
The pivotal importance of a Strategic Partnership Agreement between India and Afghanistan needs to be appreciated in this perspective. The treaty was signed in 2011. It provided for assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan’s infrastructure and institutions, education and technical assistance to rebuild indigenous Afghan capacity in different areas.
However, the challenge of maintaining India’s growing footprint in Afghanistan includes continuous threat posed byunabated terror attacks on Indians in Afghan soil, which is part of hostile design to compel India to pull back from the stabilization cum reconstruction process in Afghanistan. So, this is the third element of the Triangular Conceptual Framework.
Triangular Frame of India’s Afghanistan Strategy
Now if we put to test all three criterion of the above-made conceptual design of India’s Afghan strategy we mayarrive at some insightful conclusion on the basis of the findings from contemporary available data which would lead the pathway for seeking solutions for Afghanistan as well as the success of Indian strategy in this regard. It needs to be made clear in this connection that the establishment of a trilateral mechanism of dialogue between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India can substantially enhance mutual understanding and for identifying areas for potential reconciliation and collaboration, which will herald greater peace and cooperation in the subcontinent that suffers more acutely in the wake of fragile state of intra-regional cooperation. It is not a cakewalk for, such endeavour will have to compete not only with the US, Russian and Chinese influences trying to make inroads, but also withIndia’s own capacities to mobilise resources for unstable neighbourhood at large.
