Strategic Partnership between India and Afghanistan

By: Habib Sangar

Taking into account the importance of the friendship between Afghanistan and India, and the actual move that has been put in place with signing the Strategic Partnership (SP) today, it would be very suitable for the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, to call this relationship as what the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gilani, in a failed attempt of seeking support from the Chinese authorities, has termed their relationship as, “higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey”.
Looking to the contents of this SP, Afghanistan as poor nation, dependent on international aid, facing a traditional enemy, Pakistan, who has always sought its interests in a destabilized, weak, and backward Afghanistan, is provided with an opportunity to ensure its long term security and stability as well as to accelerate its economic growth by utilizing all the potential resources that this wonderful piece of hearth personifies. However, as far as the Indian side is concerned, taking into consideration the current rapid economic growth, India is in search for securing and diversifying its energy resources as to stay an active competitor in the region, especially while dealing with China. Secondly, to ensure prohibiting sanctuaries of terrorist networks and expansion of radical Islamic groups in sub continent and Afghanistan likewise,  who are tend to be supported by its traditional enemy, Pakistan, is among major objectives to the Indian government. Likewise, as it has been mentioned in the SP, India also wants to ensure a cutoff of the financial resources that flow to the insurgents from drug- trafficking, money laundry and so forth which is foreseen in a stable and secured Afghanistan.

As it is stated, India is in sought of diversifying its energy resources that is likely to be pumped from the Central Asia through Afghanistan. Therefore, a secured and stable Afghanistan, which plays a role of corridor between Central and South in general is strategically of importance to the India. And to realize this, investing on Afghan National Army, both in terms of training and equipping them, is among the major steps that will ensure lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan, and will enable it to stand against any plot by insurgents.

There is no doubt that in forefront of fighting terrorism as well as hosting NATO and the United States to defeat insurgency, more than ever in the past, likewise, Afghanistan enjoys supports of those countries. However, having India’s commitment based on this SP further ensures a critical support in the regional context; especially, defending the interest of Afghanistan that is now tend to be firmly bonded to the interest of India, is of utmost importance. Insecurity and instability in Afghanistan directly threatens India’s long-term interest as well as posse immediate challenge to its people and country. With the past lessons from Hijack of IC 814 in mind, India will never tolerate any plot against its nationals and government to be masterminded elsewhere and achieved in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government beside of being responsible to its Indian Partner, as India is mutually responsible to its afghan side, for the realization of the objectives listed in this SP, it must also feel being accountable to it citizens. Therefore, the Afghan government has to look at and deal with this SP strategically. The Afghan government should take this unprecedented opportunity very serious, and should design and implement policies and programs that will facilitate realization of the goals embodied in this SP. A specific committee, composed of all stakeholders at the ministerial level, should be formed and tasked with the program design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of the progress made in this SP. The political system that is currently functioning in Afghanistan has numerous flaws, which I don’t want to discuss here; however, major among them is the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers by the President. In a country like Afghanistan, where there are parallel authorities alongside with the government, broader engagement in international affairs, especially, dealing with its nasty neighbors such as Pakistan and Iran, the President as head of State has got much more to handle, and it is hard for him to pursue things that need to scrutinized by the Prime Minister. Afghanistan needs a complete separation of power, where check and balance is fully ensured.  As the subject of revision of political system is very controversial and hard to achieve, it is very much critical for the government to form a committee authorized by presidential degree to oversee implementation of economic development programs, especially, looking after implementation of such partnerships. The chairperson of such committee must be appointed based on his/her merit, not a political intervention by anyone. I would be more explicitly emphasizing on someone, who should have at least PhD and practical experiences with the International Organizations such as World Bank, IMF which broadly deal to policy reforms and institutionalization for economic development.

In the economic aspect of this strategic partnership, the term of “economic interdependency” used between these two countries is very much beneficial for country like Afghanistan. Thus, bringing necessary reforms and structural adjustments in place, Afghanistan will be able to take full advantage from this SP than it has taken in the past few years from the assistance provided by international community. According to the current rough estimation, around 70 percent of the people are engaged in agriculture sector in Afghanistan; while it is more in traditional level, with the help of Indian experts, the Afghan government needs to focus on modernization and commercialization of this sector. The ministry of agriculture has to be tasked with design and implementation of research and extension programs as well as to establish the required processing facilities for its agriculture products and overall the technology transform from India to Afghanistan. With its experience of transforming its agriculture sector to more commercialize and modernized sector in mind, India has more expertise to offer to its Afghan partner.

When it comes to the human recourses training, Indian government very generously has helped Afghan government. Each year, there are 500 scholarships offered to the afghan students, who embark on their higher education at Bachelors and Masters levels. However, while this process is kept ongoing, Afghan government must avail itself of the resources and expertise owned by the Indian side, and has to focus on strengthening its educational institutes as well as to revise their curriculums into more modern that can serve current needs of the society and the world as whole. More education institutes that will serve the future needs of the Afghan people, especially in long run, when the international expatriates are gone, should be established. Chief among them, IT, Business Administration, Management, Research and Development, entrepreneurship, Civil Aviation and transportation and so forth are worth to mention.