{"id":121825,"date":"2021-07-28T18:55:23","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=121825"},"modified":"2021-07-28T19:03:36","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:33:36","slug":"evaluating-indias-options-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/evaluating-indias-options-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluating India\u2019s options in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G9M8QD992.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: Future course of action for India vis-a-vis situation in Afghanistan<\/p>\n<p><b>Synopsis: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the West done with Afghanistan, New Delhi needs to adopt a<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">layered approach in finding a political solution. It has to work with Eurasian powers to protect its interests and stabilise Afghanistan.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The U.S. is retreating from Afghanistan as part of a grand strategy to take on China in maritime Asia. It has failed to defeat the Taliban but has been successful in killing Osama Bin Laden and disrupting al-Qaeda networks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Taliban is currently gaining more and more territory, which raises a crucial question in front of India regarding its future engagement in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Evolution of Indo &#8211; Afghan relations<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Barring a brief period in the 1990s, India has historically enjoyed good ties with Afghanistan, which go back to the <strong>1950 Treaty of Friendship.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian interests and influence suffered when the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, captured Kabul in 1996. But India was back in action as soon as the Taliban were ousted from power after the U.S. invasion in 2001.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has made huge investments and commitments ever since, which run into over $3 billion. It has cultivated strong economic and defence ties with the Afghan government.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Now, its again facing uncertainty in Afghanistan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: #f7f2f2;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Also Read<\/strong>: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-afghan-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">India&#8217;s future Afghan policy &#8211; Explained<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><b>What can India do<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Talking with the Taliban<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It <\/span>would allow New Delhi to seek <strong>security guarantees<\/strong> from the insurgents<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in return for continued development assistance or other pledges. It will also <\/span>explore the possibility of the Taliban\u2019s autonomy from Pakistan.\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India should not overlook the deep ties between Pakistan\u2019s security establishment and the<b> Haqqani Network.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is a major faction within the Taliban that\u2019s driving the successful campaigns on the battlefield.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However <\/span>there is<b> no guarantee <\/b>that India\u2019s quest for engagement with the Taliban would produce a desirable outcome.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Enhance support towards Afghan Government<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: New Delhi should also enhance aid to Afghanistan\u2019s legitimate government and security forces as Taliban is quickly expanding its territories.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India should urgently step up training Afghan forces and provide military hardware, intelligence and logistical and financial support. This would enable Kabul to continue its efforts to defend the cities.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Regional Cooperation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: It should work with other regional powers for <strong>long-term stability<\/strong> in the country. There is a convergence of interests between India and <\/span><b>three key regional players<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in seeing a political settlement in Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For <\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>China<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, whose<\/span><b>\u00a0Xinjiang province shares a border with Afghanistan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a jihadist-oriented Taliban regime would not serve its internal interests. <\/span><b>India should talk with China,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with the objective of finding a political settlement and lasting stability in Afghanistan.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Russia<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which fears that instability would spill over into the former Soviet Republics, has already moved to secure its Central Asian perimeter. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Russia has cultivated links with the Taliban in recent years. <\/span><b>India would need Russia\u2019s support<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in any form of direct engagement with the Taliban.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Iran<\/strong><\/span>: For the Shia theocratic <\/span><b>Iran<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a Sunni Deobandi Taliban with which it had almost gone to war in 1998, will continue to remain an ideological, sectarian and strategic challenge. <\/span><b>Building strategic ties with Iran<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, irrespective of the U.S.\u2019s policy towards the Islamic Republic, is essential for India\u2019s Afghan bets.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The Hindu Relevance: Future course of action for India vis-a-vis situation in Afghanistan Synopsis: With the West done with Afghanistan, New Delhi needs to adopt a layered approach in finding a political solution. It has to work with Eurasian powers to protect its interests and stabilise Afghanistan. Background The U.S. is retreating from Afghanistan&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/evaluating-indias-options-in-afghanistan\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Evaluating India\u2019s options in Afghanistan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[561,212],"class_list":["post-121825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-afghanistan","tag-gs-paper-2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704851325},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}