India / Afghanistan - A New Strategic Relationship

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 03 Nov 2011 14:37

abhischekcc wrote:Acharya, have you read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies?

world turns full circle eh?

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 03 Nov 2011 19:19

Things to remember about the rail-link :

(1) The talebs will be in power sharing mode within the next 3 years, and probably in control of the country by 2015-2017.

(2) in the pre-power stage, talebs and associates will target the railway, and a huge amount of surveillance will be neeeded to keep the lines safe. Given the territory the propsoed link passes through - not sure that the stressed interim gov will be able to. Moreover, they will not want the rail to function before Talebs take full control - as the line could be seen as potentially of military use for the increasingly cornered regime at Kabul. Once Talebs are in control - of course they can use it - for new beginnings with Iran and pursuit of their drugs-jihad campaign.

(3) I will repeat a warning I gave long long ago : do not assume that Iran under the mullahcracy will NOT support the Talebs or militants in AFG. For Iran, pushing out USA from the Gulf is the priority, and hence no matter how much din is raised about the soc-alled Shia-sunni split - Iran will help both Pak and AFG militants. I know that my position on this has been contrary to received wisdom here for more than 2 years now. But in the coming years - when pressure on the mullahcracy of Iran grows internally, their outlet will be an overt nationalism with anti-US and anti-semitism being key-notes. This will almost inevitably bring together an Iran-China [also beset with internal pressures] axis that helps Paka nd AFG along in edxchange for their continuing nuisance value to bleed USA.

Iran will hem and haw and tactically stay silent because of this need - and the nature of this triad - to ignore actually China and Pak use of the triad against their parallel objectives against India.

All this will happen - because none of these countries feel the need to be the global conscience keepr of humanitarian ethics - which India somehow has been duped into believeing is its primary role internationally.

Agnimitra · Post by **Agnimitra** » 03 Nov 2011 19:36

brihaspati wrote:do not assume that Iran under the mullahcracy will NOT support the Talebs or militants in AFG. For Iran, pushing out USA from the Gulf is the priority, and hence no matter how much din is raised about the soc-alled Shia-sunni split - Iran will help both Pak and AFG militants. ...in the coming years - when pressure on the mullahcracy of Iran grows internally, their outlet will be an overt nationalism with anti-US and anti-semitism being key-notes. This will almost inevitably bring together an Iran-China [also beset with internal pressures] axis that helps Paka nd AFG along in edxchange for their continuing nuisance value to bleed USA.

+1. Unless there are pro-active moves by India on the eastern flank and NATO/Turkey on the Western flank which makes Iran re-think its options. The general response of Iranians to China's overtly increasing footprint in TSP is positive. They are focussed only on defiance against the US and Zionists.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 03 Nov 2011 20:15

Arav wrote:
ramana wrote:actually if the mines are realized for first time in its recorded history Afghanistan wont be on subsidy from India or elsewhere.
Ramana garu, mine main contention was not afghanistan sustenance, but the rail connectivity. If this rail connetivity is realized and done by India. Then any country in future if wins the mining rights has to accomadate India, as there is no other ideal alternative route to transport other then through chabhar port, in which India has already invested a lot. Also if the rail route is done by india, its added advantage.

Arav, By 2050 India will be number one ecomony. Hence it will be India that will mine those mienrals as its needed for the economy. I am thinking of the future when you will be telling your grandkids of the BR vision.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 03 Nov 2011 20:53

abhischekcc wrote:Acharya, have you read Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies?

Lost it in memory. Can you give some gist to this thread

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 03 Nov 2011 22:49

X-Post...

brihaspati wrote:Dean Nelson, the South Asia editor of Telegraph, covers all usual "neutral" bases in his article, but ends it with a subtle but smooth hand-over of all the mess in Afghanistan over to India-Pak.

Afghanistan is a proxy war between India and Pakistan
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... istan.html
Afghanistan is not just the front line in Nato's fight against the Taliban, but also a proxy war between India and Pakistan. Until relations really improve between the nuclear neighbours, Afghanistan will remain another of their battlegrounds – and no safe place for serious investors.
On a similar strangely provocative heading : NYT had the line "Afghanistan Favors India and Denigrates Pakistan By JACK HEALY and ALISSA J. RUBIN Published: October 4, 2011". http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/world ... istan.html

But all this should be read with what General Sir David Richards had been forced to admit almost a year ago : that this war was not about any ordinary "national/economic deprivation" fueled war as proposed by apologists of Islamism - both inside and outside of Islam. In an interview
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... Qaeda.html
he had stated, and his admissions are significant when filtered from the politically correct context he is forced to use in a public interview:

But this war – unlike those of the past – could last up to 30 years.

"Make no mistake," he states with added emphasis. "The global threat from al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates is an enduring one and one which, if we let it, will rear its head in states particularly those that are unstable.
In plain words : the winding up of operations in 2011, or even by 2014 - will only be halfway through his envisaged almost generational "30" year mark. Al Qaeda has almost attained the Djinni status - it is there, yet not there, yet there, yet not there. It can do things without being there, or not do things being there. It can not exist or be a minority opinion or a fringe "lunatic" group - yet can manifest in "unstable" states! It is a fringe element yet can exist and survive and continue among the majority for ages and yet dominate such non-fringe, non-lunatic majority groups and even "states".

"The national security of the UK and our allies is, in my judgement, at stake – that is why we are engaged in a global struggle against a pernicious form of ideologically distorted form of Islamic fundamentalism.
In plain words : A global or worldwide struggle is necessary merely to defend the national borders of UK and its allies. In the area where AQ concentrates, who are UK's "allies"? Are they "unstable"? We can guess, but such an admission is after all an admission that war beyond immediate borders are now necessary to merely secure national security. Moreover, the peculiar politically correct turn of phrase is ironic but revealing : Islamic fundamentalism has many different forms apparently, out of which some are "ideologically straight fundamentalisms" and others are "ideologically twisted fundamentalisms" out of which only the AQ form is "pernicious"!

"Our men and women in Afghanistan are fighting to prevent this from spreading. I think there are direct parallels to be made with the bravery of those who risked, and who gave, their lives in the fight against Fascism in the Second World War.
In plain words : ideologically twisted Islamic fundamentalism == fascism

The general subscribes to the notion that such an ideologically-driven adversary cannot be defeated in the traditional sense, and to attempt to do so could be a mistake.

"In conventional war, defeat and victory is very clear cut and is symbolised by troops marching into another nation's capital.

First of all you have to ask: "do we need to defeat it (Islamist militancy)?" in the sense of a clear cut victory, and I would argue that it is unnecessary and would never be achieved."

It is a bold statement and he quickly adds: "But can we contain it to the point that our lives and our children's lives are led securely? I think we can."
He finally admits - ideologically driven adversary cannot be defeated in the traditional sense of outright war only. This is the point that I had tried to drive home in a debate almost two years ago here, which ultimately turned ugly. I had tried to point out that the main reason that the Afghan war strategy - which is being admitted as much by the General here in tha later parts of the interview
- will turn out to be erroneous because of the downplaying or ignoring or dismissing of this ideologically driven angle. Unless the ideology itself is simultaneously targeted - thw are cannot be won.

In comparing with fascism , or the longer term battle that went on with communism - the west never neglected the task of ideologically undermining the two camps. Continuously, assiduously, and a no-holds barred campaign. It is here that they have not taken up the cudgels with Islamism. And the reason that they have failed. Maybe the Marxists won after all - or the surviving anti-Semitism of Christianity of certain types - remained dormant and kicking - to see an ally in fooling the "west" about the not attacking the ideology!

Having realized what they really should have done along with their war campaigns, and their inability or hesitation to take up this immensely challenging ideological effort - the west now plans to establish the idea that all this is about India-Pak onlee - and they should be forced to clean up after wests stomach upsets.

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 04 Nov 2011 00:38

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world ... &ref=world

Afghanistan Consults Neighbors on Security
By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: November 3, 2011

ISTANBUL — In the largest meeting of its kind to date, representatives of Afghanistan and 12 nearby countries gathered in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss regional efforts to rebuild security and stability in and around Afghanistan as NATO-led forces prepare to pull out of the country by the end of 2014.

In adopting a strategy known as the Istanbul Protocol, the foreign ministers of countries including China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Russia committed to cooperate in combating terrorism, drug trafficking and insurgent activities, as well as in other areas.

“Regional cooperation is not only theory,” Afghanistan’s foreign minister, Zalmai Rassoul, said in a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu.

One American official said the most important accomplishment of the meeting was that it happened at all, bringing so many countries in the region together.

“This wasn’t somebody from outside saying you ought to behave this way,” the official said in a briefing in which the ground rules granted him anonymity. “This was a way for the region itself to say, ‘This is our vision; this is how we would like to go forward,’ and I think that’s a significant thing.”

The wide range of measures adopted on Wednesday included few specifics, and diplomats will begin working on practical plans to meet their goals.

Those plans are expected to be presented at a meeting in Kabul next year.

While diplomats expressed hopes that regional solutions could help stabilize Afghanistan, it is also clear that powerful strains remain.

India and Pakistan were both at the meeting, for instance, although they are vying for influence in Afghanistan. American officials say the Pakistanis support the Haqqani network, a militant group responsible for much of the violence in Afghanistan, in order to have a proxy to blunt India’s influence there.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 04 Nov 2011 00:50

In adopting a strategy known as the Istanbul Protocol, the foreign ministers of countries including China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Russia committed to cooperate in combating terrorism, drug trafficking and insurgent activities, as well as in other areas.

How this will work is TSP will tip off the perpetrators as xsoon as they come across any information and ocassionally with throw a bone to keep the others happy.

How do the Turks in Istanbul expect the protocol to work with Pakis in it? And they are not part of it!

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 06 Nov 2011 04:15

Hope this was not posted before.

Indo-Afghan treaty: A move forward

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 06 Nov 2011 05:01

India, Pakistan Will Compete for Influence in Afghanistan, Musharraf Says

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 06 Nov 2011 05:03

Strong Indo-US partnership important for Afghan peace: Senator

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 06 Nov 2011 05:04

Checkmate Pakistan

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 06 Nov 2011 05:35

http://afghanistananalysis.wordpress.com/

Mullah Omar’s Eid message (Audio and text)
Posted on November 5, 2011 by Ahmad| Leave a comment
The Taliban’s elusive leader, Mullah Omar, has released a statement on the occasion of the Eid holiday. In a nutshell, he calls Afghanistan home to all of its ethnic groups, instructs the Taliban to minimize civilian casualties, and bans night letters and threatening phone calls.

It’s text has been released in Urdu, Pashto, Dari and English. They have also released what they claim to be the voice of “Mullah Omar Mujahid” reading his message. The audio below is from the Taliban, helpfully made available to me by Sharifullah Sahak of the New York Times.

atma · Post by **atma** » 10 Nov 2011 01:59

Analysis: With an eye on 2014, India steps up Afghan role - X post from Afghanistan dhaga

Mehta said the Afghans were expected to send company-sized units of 120 men for training at Indian bases, including a respected counter-insurgency school in northeastern Vairengte.

Afghan infantry units are also expected to train at a high- altitude warfare school in Kashmir, where Indian forces have had plenty of experience battling revolts over 20 years.

Part of the Soviet Union's exit strategy after its disastrous campaign in Afghanistan relied on training troops, and some pilots, in then Soviet-Uzbekistan. Some soldiers were also flown to Moscow in the mid-1980s.

Under the India-Afghan pact, weapons such as rifles, rocket launchers and artillery would help fill equipment gaps and pilots would be trained on simulators in India.

Kamran Bokhari, vice president of Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs at global intelligence consulting firm STRATFOR, said intelligence sharing would be the biggest, yet least talked-about, part of the India-Afghanistan partnership.

He said military cooperation between the two countries had to be limited because they don't share a border and that a hostile Pakistan lies in between.

"But intelligence is something that doesn't require borders and they can do quite a lot in that area," Bokhari said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/ ... 7R20111109

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 10 Nov 2011 02:24

Good find Atma. Read this with the NTI article on US plans for TSP jewels.

These company sized units migh tbe need for similar ops against bad Taliban.

BTW now we know why STRATFOR has a jaundiced opinion on India!

devesh · Post by **devesh** » 10 Nov 2011 03:01

just watched a stratfor video of Bokhari. the idiot constantly keeps saying "South Asia". almost every other sentence out of his mouth had "South Asia".

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 29 Nov 2011 21:23

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15936402

A consortium of Indian companies has won the right to develop some of Afghanistan's large iron ore deposits, Afghan mining ministry officials say.

Seven Indian companies, led by the state-owned Steel Authority of India, won a $10.3bn (£6.6bn) deal to mine three sites in central Afghanistan.

A fourth site was awarded to Canada's Kilo Goldmines. All the contracts are due to be signed early next year.

Last month, Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership deal with India.

Exploitation of the estimated two billion tonnes of iron ore deposits in Hajigak mine - located in Bamiyan - is expected to begin by 2015.

Officials say that the project has the potential to be Afghanistan's single biggest foreign investment project.

The Hajigak deposit contains an estimated 1.8 billion tonnes of iron ore, with an iron concentration of 64%, the mines ministry said in a statement. The figures are based on a survey carried out in the 1960s.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 05 Dec 2011 22:59

X-Posted.. Very important he uses the word Frontiers which Curzon first used.

Policy sans Frontiers

Policy sans frontiers
When Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister tried to explain to Parliament the significance of Aksai Chin, he referred to it as an area where not a blade of grass grew. He was stressing that Aksai Chin was barren, desolate and inhospitable. By implication, therefore, that India had lost only some useless piece of real estate to the Chinese. Mahavir Tyagi, Nehru’s friend and critic, shot back and pointing to his bald head asked, “Nothing grows here... should it be cut off or given away to someone else?”

One is reminded of this anecdote because of a similar suggestion recently made that we should leave Afghanistan to Pakistan and come home because we have no interests there anymore. This sounds very much like the proposal from the former US commander in Afghanistan General McChrystal who, exasperated by his own lack of success, advocated that India should adopt a lower profile in Afghanistan. There have been many suggestions from US circles that India should satisfy Pakistan by withdrawing from its interests in Afghanistan. They do not recognise regional interests or strategic needs of a nation trying to establish its role in the region.

The argument that we back off Afghanistan is one step ahead of the one offered by the report of the Sherry Rehman led-Jinnah Institute released in September. The report, that of the elite of Pakistan, accepts India’s role in Afghanistan in a limited way for economic development but suspects that India is far too deeply involved, which was against Pakistan’s interests.

There is more than one reason for India to remain engaged in Afghanistan and let us not forget that India would like its extended neighbourhood to be friendly and aware of India’s interests. It is not understood how a Pakistan rampant in Afghanistan will serve Indian interests, even if it is for a short while. A country that has played duplicitously for so long with the US, its main benefactor, is hardly likely to give us great comfort. It will use its strategic depth, something it has striven so hard for so long, to launch attacks on India and still have the deniability that these attacks do not originate from Pakistani soil. It has taken the world two decades and a few hard knocks to accept that Pakistan has been the epicentre of terrorism and this sort of retreat by India will take away this dubious title.

One of the arguments for withdrawal is that no Afghan has ever been involved in nor has Afghan soil been used for anti-Indian activities. Today, there are 14 Afghan terrorists in custody in Jodhpur and seven in Srinagar for terrorist activity in India. We all know the extent of involvement of the Taliban and the ISI in the IC-814 episode in Kandahar in December 1999. The Afghan and Pakistani border regions have been notoriously porous and Pakistan has used this for its strategic interests ever since the first Afghan jihad.

Besides, the powerful Haqqani Network, close to the ISI and operating both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is avowedly anti-India. It was this group that carried out the suicide attacks on the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Pakistan’s active role in the insurgency in Afghanistan is far too well-known. It has also used the Afghan Shura of Quetta and even inducted elements of the Lashkar-e-Taiba for both battle inoculation and as a policy hedge against the Taliban. Training camps like Khost in Afghanistan raided by Clinton’s cruise missiles showed up Pakistani terrorists from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

{Security interests of India}

The first premise should be that Afghanistan is for Afghans and not Pakistanis, nor is Afghanistan a desolate piece of territory of little or no significance to India and, therefore, for Pakistan to have. Located as it is, Afghanistan is rich with an estimated $3 trillion worth of vital mineral resources. The Chinese have already moved in with a $3 billion investment in the Anyak copper mines, along with a power station and a rail link. We are not far behind with a $6 billion contract for a SAIL-led consortium to develop the rich Hajigak iron ore mines in the Bamyan province, construct a steel plant and a railway network. This is besides the $2 billion that India has committed to Afghanistan.

{Economic interests of India.}

India and Afghanistan signed the wide-ranging Strategic Partnership Agreement last month. This was Afghanistan’s first such agreement signifying the country’s closeness to India and mutual trust between the two nations. In this context, some might even argue that we should be sending troops to Afghanistan to protect Indian investments, and if need be Indian strategic interests. India is poised for a breakthrough and any recommendation calling for withdrawal at this stage makes very little sense.

Afghanistan is not just about India and Pakistan in a supposedly post-US phase. China, because of its growing interest in the region has strategic interests in trying to reach the Gulf through Afghanistan and Iran. It eyes Afghanistan’s rich mineral resources as vital for its continued economic development, especially of the Xinjiang and Tibet regions. It would seek an alternative route to the Gulf and not remain completely dependent on Pakistan seeing how it has used its location to blackmail the US.

Simultaneously, China continues to strengthen its presence in the vital Gilgit-Baltistan area which would ultimately give it better access to Afghanistan. Besides, Iran has abiding interests in Afghanistan as it sees and worries about the growing hold of the radical Sunni Islamist Taliban in that country.

We need to think beyond today and tomorrow to the hereinafter. We need to think of our geo-strategic requirements and geopolitical situation 20 or 30 years from now. A retreat from Afghanistan now would mean accepting the Chinese game of restricting our role to our national frontiers. Nations that think only in the short term are doomed to oblivion. Nations that think of only their national boundaries without a forward policy are doomed to remaining small nations. The 21st century belongs to Asia and we are an important part of that new Asia. Let us not choose a destiny that casts us aside. Thinking differently is always desirable but thinking dangerously can be fatal.

Vikram Sood is former secretary, Research & Analysis Wing

The views expressed by the author are personal

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 06 Dec 2011 04:59

Why is frontier used in the region.
Is it because of passes and natural boundaries which have kept nations and people apart from historical times in the past.
Are frontier control the ultimate in geo political control or it is not relevant in the modern times

India may need more than froniter control and may need re population and client states in the CAS region.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 06 Dec 2011 06:04

Can yoga and meditation bring peace to Afghans?
Yoga Power

KABUL: As the Afghan government’s Western backers pour in cash, and tens of thousands of foreign soldiers patrol the country, a French human rights activist is trying a new way to break the cycle of violence in Afghanistan: yoga and meditation. “In thirty years of war, we’ve tried everything and nothing has worked,” said Amandine Roche, who believes it is better to try to rid the mind of vengeful thoughts than to disarm a fighter at gunpoint.Her organisation, the Amanuddin Foundation, aims to promote nonviolence by teaching techniques of calm.Volunteering since February as she searches for funds, she has given classes at which she demonstrates yoga and meditation to men, women, children, police officers, soldiers and former Taliban insurgents.Key to her work is the idea that peace cannot be imposed from outside, but must come from within an individual, she said.
“I’ve become firmly convinced that nonviolence is not the best way for Afghanistan, it’s the only way.”
The young Afghans who have tried yoga and meditation have been receptive.“When I do yoga exercise I forget all of my pains and I feel comfortable,” said Masoda, a 12 year old schoolgirl at one of Roche’s classes for children in the capital Kabul.It might be quite a leap from working with children to bringing that same peace of mind to the gunmen of Afghanistan, but Roche, who was detained by the Taliban in 2001, says they are human too.“My vision is to teach meditation to all the insurgents, to organise vocational training for them to become mediation teachers, so they can go back to society, they have a job, they can reintegrate, and they will become peaceful.”“Meditation is like an inner shower,” she said. “You feel dirty when you don’t take a shower for one week; you feel the same with your mind when you don’t meditate. It helps you to purify your mind, be rid of all the negativity, frustration.”On Monday, the German city of Bonn is hosting a major international conference about the future of Afghanistan, at which the West will signal its long-term support for the country.But evidence of the damage done by the cycle of attack and revenge is everywhere in Afghanistan.This week, in reaction to a Nato raid along the Afghan-Pakistan border that killed 24 of its soldiers, Pakistan pulled out of a major international conference on the future of the country.“You look at the story of Afghanistan – from the British to the Russians to the Mujahideen, the Taliban, now democracy – it’s always revenge for the past war,” Roche said.“It’s never ended. If once, one day someone says ‘I stop, and you stop, and let’s stop together let’s see.”

arunsrinivasan · Post by **arunsrinivasan** » 07 Dec 2011 08:25

India Boosts Afghan Military Role

India’s military establishment is finalizing plans to train thousands of Afghan Army officers. Will New Delhi secure a first movers’ advantage?

On Monday, more than 85 nations began a meeting in Bonn to discuss the future of Afghanistan from 2014, when U.S.-led troops are scheduled to hand over security to Kabul.

But thousands of miles away, plans are already in the final stages of receiving Indian government clearance for an extensive training schedule for the fledgling Afghan National Army (ANA) at training institutions across the country.

The program is the first concrete follow-up on military-to-military cooperation under the umbrella of the Strategic Partnership Agreement that was signed between Kabul and New Delhi in October, when Afghan President Hamid Karzai was given a grand reception in India.

Under the agreement, India, which has the world’s third-largest army, agreed to train, equip and build the capacity of the Afghan forces.

Sources in the Indian security establishment familiar with the contours of the detailed schedule say Kabul and New Delhi have identified three areas to focus on, namely increasing the intake of officers in India’s premier training institutes; providing specialized training to middle and higher level officers already operating in the Afghan National Army (ANA); and training soldiers in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations by seconding them to various regimental centers across India.

This will involve, sources told me last month, when I first did a report on the issue for NDTV, bringing to India more than 25,000 ANA officers and men over the next three years.Finalizing the schedule may take at least another couple of months, the sources added.

The military leadership in India and Afghanistan has concluded after several rounds of discussions that training the officer cadre won’t on its own be enough, since Afghan soldiers also need to be given the skills to take on the mixed role of counter-insurgency operations and providing static security three years from now.

At the same time, military planners have concluded that mid-level officers in the ANA need to be reoriented and given the training needed to assume leadership roles in the post-NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. Accordingly, officers at the ranks of Lt. Col. and Brigadier will be provided focused training at three specialized institutions in India: The Commando School in Belgaum in south India, The Counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare (CIJW) School in Mizoram, in northeast of India, and The High Altitude Warfare School in Sonamarg, Kashmir.

While the Belgaum School imparts soldiers and officers with commando skills over and above their basic infantry training, the CIJW, a 33-year-old institution in India’s northeast, has over the years perfected the techniques of counter-insurgency operations in varied terrain, and has trained contingents from countries including the United States and Vietnam. The High Altitude Warfare School, meanwhile, which is located in the Kashmir Valley, teaches basic skills to allow forces to operate in snowy and high altitude areas.

Initially, the plan is to train select officers and then slowly ramp up training to include small groups of soldiers, too.

But the bulk of the program will be concentrated on training and welding together company-level (100 men) contingents by basing them at various regimental centers run by the Indian Army to train new recruits into the force. These centers, commanded by brigadiers, are the first training stop for every Indian soldier before he joins regular battalions. The training is likely to last for six to eight months. So far, India has trained half a dozen platoon level (30 soldiers) groups from the ANA, but has kept this development well under wraps.

With 25 Infantry regimental centers spread across the country, India is able to train up to 2,500 Afghan soldiers simultaneously.Moreover, India has also decided to double the vacancies for fresh Afghan officer recruits in two of the country’s premier institutions – the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun, and the two Officers’ Training Institutes at Chennai and Gaya. So far, there have been a total of 50 seats on offer in these training establishments.

But there is reportedly an additional component to the training that Indian officials are reluctant to talk about – training by select intelligence officers in Indian Army’s Military Intelligence Training School, located in the western Indian city of Pune. About 20 operatives from the ANA are said to have undergone a six month intelligence course, with more on their way.

New Delhi has also decided to supply vehicles, information technology and sports equipment, a move seen as a paradigm shift in India’s approach to Afghanistan.

So far, India has concentrated on using “soft power” in the development sector, such as helping with the building of roads, hospitals and even the parliament building in Afghanistan. But by offering extensive training facilities for ANA, India has decided to ramp up its involvement, although it’s currently stopping short of supplying any military hardware. New Delhi has also decided not to send training teams to Afghanistan in view of the two attacks on its embassy in Kabul.

The Indian security and strategic establishment has been wary of discussing the Indo-Afghan military-to-military relationship, not least because of Islamabad’s sensitivities. Pakistan sees the growing relationship between New Delhi and Kabul as denying “strategic depth” to its army, and even as an Indian attempt to encircle Pakistan.

Veteran analysts and military officers in India for their part dismiss such fears. Former Director General of Military Intelligence in the Indian Army, retired Lt. Gen Ravi Sawhney, speaks for many in arguing: “India has legitimate interests in Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics and has every right to develop its relationship with any country in keeping with its own national interests.”

But Sawhney, one of the first officers to establish contact with Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance in the late 1990s and early 2000s, says he opposes any Indian troop deployment in Afghanistan.

“There’s no advantage in doing so, since India doesn’t have any direct land access to that country,” he says. “Our strength is the quality of training troops, and India is doing the right thing by concentrating on this aspect.”

As the United States and its NATO allies prepare for their drawdown over the next couple of years, the jostling for strategic space in Afghanistan by countries in the region is likely to intensify. By starting out early, India is trying to gain a first movers’ advantage. Whether it will benefit in the long run from such a significant investment of energy, though, remains to be seen.

Nitin Gokhale is Defence & Strategic Affairs Editor with Indian broadcaster, NDTV 24×7

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Dec 2011 08:46

Very comprehensive plan. India is doing what US didnt want to do all these years.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Jan 2012 06:18

New experts on the rise:
http://www.ipcs.org/staff_details.php?member_id=132

Example work:

http://www.ipcs.org/article/india/the-a ... -3517.html

The Afghan Debate: Is India Both the Problem and the Solution?
Abhijit Iyer-Mitra
email: [email protected]
Research Officer, IPCS

That India is playing a ‘destructive’ game in Afghanistan is undeniable. India’s recently ramped up engagement is designed to do one thing – rile Pakistan into maintaining its support of the Taliban. While the cold-blooded realpolitik element of this is evident there are also many reasons that the ‘problem’ is also the solution. This may not be the ‘perfect’ solution but then perfect solutions only lay in the minds of beauty pageant contestants.

India’s development aid to Afghanistan has always been situation-specific and development projects there are targeted to spread work, funds, and benefits evenly across communities. Unlike the West which has now started favouring dominant tribes to ensure stability, India has always accepted Afghanistan as a loose confederacy of warring tribes where the imposition of external definitions of statehood and stability do not work. The net result is that when the Western withdrawal is complete, ‘collaboration’ is identified with one tribe that then gets decimated, while economic favouritism makes enemies of all the disenfranchised. Contrast this with the Indian approach which ensures an even wellspring of favourable opinion that can be activated at a later date. Similarly, unlike the West, which has contributed to the brain drain out of Afghanistan as those who study in the West usually end up immigrating there – most Afghans who come to India go back to rebuild their country. India therefore has concentrated not just on current development but also future development.

India’s strategic training pact with Afghanistan again is far more situation-specific. The US-imposed training regime lasted a bare three weeks per intake while the German training went on for an unrealistic three years. In India, officers are trained for a period of six-eight months enabling a reasonable quality-quantity matrix. This may be a case of too little too late but given that almost everyone agrees that Afghanistan is lost, India stepping in with renewed vigour provides a significant boost to Afghan morale. Small, futile gestures like India’s massive increase in aid can bring a semblance of calm before things invariably spiral out of control post 2014.

India, by exacerbating Pakistan’s self-destructive streak, has simply brought home to the latter the reality of its failed policies. That Pakistan still refuses to introspect is a different matter – but the bankruptcy of the Pakistani national myth, its failed policy and institutions, its excessive and too smart by half militarism, and of Islamism run amok, are very evident to any thinking person in the tragic country. In many ways the situation in Pakistan is not dissimilar to the dangerous last phases of the Weimar Republic with people wondering ‘what if’. And yet a foreign and Afghan policy collapse may have the same effect as the Soviet banner of victory hoisted atop the Reichstag.

Baiting Pakistan into increasing its duplicity in its dealings with NATO, India has effectively provided the West with a convenient scapegoat. Come 2014 the historical narrative will more likely focus on betrayal rather than the reality that was the West’s bad homework and flawed assumptions. This may not be the truth but then when has history ever been about the truth? The inevitable isolation of Pakistan post 2014 will in all probability be absolute. Whatever plausible deniability that Pakistan concocts post 2014 in the Afghan power vacuum, will simply not be bought. In short Pakistan will have no more excuses left. An isolated Pakistan also forces the military’s hand in ways that have thus far been impossible. Most top military brass with families, and holdings either in London or Dubai have thus far been beyond reach. Should the Pakistan army be singled out for isolation – then for the first time and within the rule of law, can the assets of these grandees be targeted.

Moreover the West has been caught in a deep military pincer. On one hand, as China modernizes and becomes an ever bigger threat, the West has to contend with a demographically and ultimately financially superior power capable of wielding significant high-intensity warfare resources. On the other hand, consistent Western engagements in deeply wasteful low-intensity conflicts in rogue states (many of them beneficiaries of Chinese diplomatic protection) have drained the West of will and focus. Gallingly, Pakistan which has proven to be the single most valuable source of Western military technology for China, for a while at least, succeeded in getting more hi-tech. All this will stop post 2014. The withdrawal from Afghanistan will simply refocus the West’s attention on real issues of grand strategy instead of tying their world view to intangibles like ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’.

Are we losing Afghanistan? Yes, and in the process India gains a victory of the magnitude our army has always failed to achieve. We should all be praying for a crushing defeat – the worse the defeat in battle the bigger the victory in the war. Defeat is not the unavoidable consequence, but rather the desired end goal. The West’s problem is India’s solution – it is just that the West does not know it yet.

Varoon Shekhar · Post by **Varoon Shekhar** » 07 Jan 2012 12:13

Where is this writer's differentiation between India's work in Afghanistan, and Pakistan's 'work', ethically, economically and ideologically? Also, there is no acknowledgement whatsoever of any historic or current Indian interests in Afghanistan. Everything is seen through the lens of either the "West" or Pakistan! Does the writer know of India's ancient, medieval and modern( from 1947- 1980, then again from 2001 to the present) connection to Afghanistan.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Jan 2012 12:24

His intro para and sarcastic style mislead me too. He is writing style is like Marc Anthony's speech. He contrasts West and Indian approach.

Agnimitra · Post by **Agnimitra** » 12 Jan 2012 20:27

Little Bollywood struggles in Afghanistan

Jalalabad has earned the nickname Little Mumbai after the Indian city renowned for its bustling Bollywood film industry. The Afghan version in the southeast of the country draws excited crowds to see locally made films, even though they are shown in tents as the city has no cinema. This hits filmmakers hard as they struggle to make a buck, while also living under the threat "of being beheaded with a knife by the Taliban". - Hejratullah Ekhtiyar

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 12 Jan 2012 22:59

ramana wrote:His intro para and sarcastic style mislead me too. He is writing style is like Marc Anthony's speech. He contrasts West and Indian approach.

Varoon I also think the write up is not what you are making it out to be.

Also I remember during the times of full blown terrorism in Punjab, the discussions in on Doordarshan (programing like Focus etc) were usually about how the Pakistani idea of interventionism could backfire on itself badly. All of it turned out to be so true.

By 2014 Amerikhans will be focusing better on economic revival and China. And because India is geographically between the ChiPak combine and because the Pakistanis are geographically between the Indians and Afghans, the situation in Pakistan will only get worse.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 13 Jan 2012 02:37

ravi_g wrote:
By 2014 Amerikhans will be focusing better on economic revival and China. And because India is geographically between the ChiPak combine and because the Pakistanis are geographically between the Indians and Afghans, the situation in Pakistan will only get worse.

Pakistan will have to go all out to final stage of total dysfunctional worse stage before anything happens.
It is the money flowing in which is making it stay alive. The money has been negotiated by the PA and they control the net flow into the country.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 25 Jan 2012 04:27

pankajs wrote:Towards a Stable Afghanistan: The Way Forward
A report of the Joint Working Group of RUSI and the Vivekananda International Foundation.
.....

Its a very good report which gives a second opinion on whats happening in Afghanistan.

Appendix 2 gives details of Indian aid to Afghanistan as of Feb 2011...

member_20617 · Post by **member_20617** » 26 Jan 2012 16:45

brihaspati wrote:All this will happen - because none of these countries feel the need to be the global conscience keepr of humanitarian ethics - which India somehow has been duped into believeing is its primary role internationally.

IMHO it’s a self- inflicted wound!

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 21 Mar 2012 15:28

India eyes Pakistani route for Afghan mine access

NEW DELHI/KABUL: India will explore a route through Pakistan to transport iron ore from Afghanistan, the head of a consortium involved in the $11 billion project said, hoping that economic benefits will outweigh political hostility.

If bakis are serious then they will join this momentun and reap the benefits. Else India should pursue some other way to bring iron ore.

The Hajigak deposit contains an estimated 1.8 billion tonnes of ore, with an iron concentration of anything between 61 per cent to 64 per cent. “Where will you find such high grade ore? People have invested in mines elsewhere in the world with much less ferrous content,” Verma said.

Considering quantity and quality in this mine its worth the effort to explore various ways.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 21 Mar 2012 15:36

So progress on electricity from Iran via TSP, TAPI and now this.... We are getting TSP entangled into a strategic mesh.

A_Gupta · Post by **A_Gupta** » 01 Apr 2012 20:19

From a New York Times article on the flight of businessmen and capital from Afghanistan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/world ... rawal.html

America may be struggling to come up with a viable exit plan for Afghanistan, but Abdul Wasay Manani is sure of his.

The broad-set Afghan butcher spent the past seven years trucking cattle in from the Pakistan border and building a thriving business for himself and his family, serving up some of the best hamburgers in Kabul for the embassies and expatriates and their barbecues.

But this month, Mr. Manani, 38, flew to India for 14 days to scout out a new business, and a new home, ready to leave Afghanistan and everything he worked to build here, just in case things fall apart when most Americans and other foreign troops leave in 2014. “If the Taliban come like last time, ordering people around with whips, I can’t stay here,” he said. “I have to leave this country to keep my family safe.”
...
...
...

For Mr. Manani, the butcher, and others like him who do not have huge amounts of capital as a safety blanket, the hopes that they can stay at home and still expand their businesses are being tempered by the need to ensure their families’ safety.

His plan is rooted in an effort to start a second business in New Delhi with his local Sikh business partner there, he says. That would enable him to get a long-term visa, and so a way out for his wife and five children, as well as his parents, brothers and a sister and their children, all of whom depend on him and would have to move with him, he says.

“Every businessman is just thinking about how to move from here, about how to be safe,” Mr. Manani said as he stood in front of a big cooler where sides of beef and lamb were hanging. Through the doorway into another room, four workers were busily cutting and packing.

He grew up in the north of Afghanistan and fought in the bitter civil war of the 1990s. There is no way he wants to relive that experience, he said.

“I don’t have the energy to take the gun again and start fighting,” he said. “That’s why I am looking for a way out.”

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 21 Apr 2012 18:15

New Delhi, Kabul to start work on Partnership Council in May

Six months after Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai signed the Strategic Partnership agreement with India — the first ever with any country — New Delhi and Kabul are working towards “activating” Partnership Council, the topmost body tasked to implement the pact, early next month.

Sources said Afghanistan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul is expected to visit India between May 2 and 5.

During Rassoul’s visit, sources said, the two sides will formally launch the Partnership Council, which will pave the way for work to begin on the joint working groups on several themes.

The Strategic Partnership Agreement, which was signed between PM Manmohan Singh and Karzai, was the main highlight of the Afghan President’s visit in October last year.

The agreement had said it is not directed against any particular country or group of countries, primarily to assuage Pakistan’s concerns.

According to the implementation mechanism agreed in the pact, it would be implemented under the framework of a Partnership Council, which will be headed by the foreign ministers of both countries. The Council will convene annual meetings and this would be the inaugural meeting, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna from the Indian side.

The Council will consist of separate joint working groups on political and security consultations, trade and economic cooperation, capacity development and education, and social, cultural and civil society, involving high level representatives from concerned ministries and authorities. Also, sources said that the existing dialogue mechanisms between the two sides will become part of the Council. Sources said that New Delhi is contemplating increasing the training slots in various military and para-military academies for Afghan officers from their security forces. “Right now, there are 150-odd officers being trained in various courses in Indian defence academies. They will be gradually increased in an incremental manner, to a substantial number,” sources added.

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 21 Apr 2012 18:52

I was visiting Agra in March, 2012. Saw a lot of Afghan National Army officers doing some tourism in Agra. Took a few photos of/with them. Here is one in Red Fort!

Roperia · Post by **Roperia** » 30 Apr 2012 08:30

After deadly strikes by Taliban, Delhi, Kabul to share real time intelligence info

NEW DELHI: India and Afghanistan are looking to revamp their intelligence sharing system after the recent multiple strikes by Taliban in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan. Ahead of foreign minister S M Krishna's meeting with his Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul this week, government officials said the two countries have decided to shun the practice of sharing intelligence through "routine'' letters and will instead focus on transferring intelligence inputs immediately.

Kabul and other Afghan cities were targeted on April 15 by Taliban in what was the most ferocious coordinated strikes in the country in years. While Indian establishments were not specifically targeted, Kabul's diplomatic enclave was attacked by the terrorists.

"We are working on a new mechanism and from now on the intelligence sharing will be on a more immediate basis instead of through routine letters,'' said an official.

"Our ambassador in Kabul has already been asked by Krishna to share details promptly with Afghan authorities and ensure follow up action to avert any disaster. He will take up the matter again with the Afghanistan foreign minister when he discusses security issues,'' the official added.

The Indian embassy in Kabul had issued a security alert on March 19 about attacks by, as it said in the advisory, anti-government elements (AGEs) in public places, which suggested that it had some inkling of the terror strikes which followed. Government sources said Rassoul will brief Krishna in detail about the attacks and preventive measures being taken.

Krishna and Rassoul will also together chair the first meeting of the India-Afghanistan Partnership Council as envisaged in the strategic partnership agreement signed by the two countries. The inaugural session of the Partnership Council will be preceded by a meeting of the Joint Working Group on Political and Security Consultations headed by foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai and deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan.

During his visit, Rassoul will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and national security adviser Shivshankar Menon. "The visit forms part of the high-level engagement between the two countries and provides an opportunity for both countries to review and consolidate the implementation of their strategic partnership,'' the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It seems we have a good intelligence network in the Af-Pak region, since we were able to sense that Pakis were upto something in March itself.

Roperia · Post by **Roperia** » 05 May 2012 01:19

Video: India-Afghanistan ties: Will Pakistan play spoiler?

The program Includes interview of Afghan foreign minister and conversation with Ahmed Rashid.

member_19686 · Post by **member_19686** » 23 Jul 2013 21:20

An Afghan Church Grows in Delhi
By NEYAZ FAROOQUEE

A still from a television program that shows Abdul Rahman, right, who converted from Islam to Christianity, holding a translated version of the Bible at a court in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Mar. 23, 2006.

In a South Delhi neighborhood, the sound of a man reciting Dari, a Farsi dialect spoken in Afghanistan, over a loudspeaker attached to a modest two-story building rose over the din of vegetable hawkers. The building was a church run by Afghan refugees who had converted to Christianity. The man was a young Afghan priest reading the Bible before a Sunday service in its basement.

Between 200 and 250 Afghan converts from Islam to Christianity who feared persecution from the Afghan authorities and the Taliban have found refuge in Delhi.

“The number of coverts to Christianity increased as the U.S. presence increased after the fall of the Taliban,” said Obaid Jan, 33, the pastor, who led the Bible service. “Most of the Christian converts lived in urban areas, so the threat from the Taliban was minimal,” he added.

But the Christian converts started fleeing Afghanistan around 2005, fearing their identities might become public. Most came to India after video footage of their secret churches found its way to Noorin TV, a Kabul-based television network, in May 2009. Their lives were further endangered in 2010, when an influential member of the lower house of the Afghan parliament, Abdul Sattar Khawasi, called for the converts’ execution.

“The Afghans who appeared in this video should be publicly executed,’’ said Mr. Khawasi. “The House should order the attorney general and the N.D.S.’’ – the National Directorate of Security – “to arrest these Afghans and execute them.”

The video showed the faces and the locations of Christian converts. “It put everyone in danger including the rest of our families who were Muslims,” said Pastor Jan, who used to work for a non-governmental organization in Kabul.

What started him on his road to Christianity, he said, was distress over infighting between different Muslim factions in Afghanistan.

“Everybody in Afghanistan claimed to be a true Muslim and kept fighting,” he said. “I couldn’t find a single Muslim in them.”

Then he met some Christian missionaries working in Afghanistan. “The fact that God has given his son to his followers in Christianity is what attracted me towards the religion,” he added.

Pastor Jan left his parents in 2007 after he received a number of threats to his life from Muslim Afghans. His family did not approve of his new religion. “The families of many converts became very hostile when they learned about their conversions,” he added.

When the family of Adib Ahmad, 24, who worked for an N.G.O. in Mazar-i-Sharif, found out about his new faith, he was given two options: return to Islam or leave the house.

“I left Mazar and went to Kabul and waited there for 20 days hoping my family might call me back,” said Mr. Ahmad. “They didn’t.”

Afghanistan recognizes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the freedom to choose one’s religion. The war-torn country has also signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but it adheres to a conservative interpretation of Islamic law.

Over the years, religious minorities facing persecution in Afghanistan have fled Afghanistan for different parts of the world. Abdul Rahman, a Christian convert for 16 years, was charged with apostasy in 2006 for abandoning Islam. Later, under pressure from Western governments, he was released from prison by the Afghan judiciary after it was successfully argued that he was mentally ill. Italy granted him asylum soon after.

The year 2009 saw the highest number of Christians flee Afghanistan. “Around 100 Christians fled to India in 2009,” said Pastor Jan. Some 40 Afghan Christians have come to India so far in 2013.

Most Afghan Christian converts have chosen India because of its proximity and their familiarity with the country.

An evangelical church, the Delhi Bible Fellowship, supported the Afghan Christian community and gave them a building for their church. But, Pastor Jan said, the Fellowship authorities felt unsafe because of their presence. The Afghan converts moved out and established their own church — known as the Afghan Church of New Delhi.

Thousands of Muslim and Sikh Afghan refugees have settled in India since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recognized most of them as refugees. But the Indian government is not obligated to grant these Afghans refugee status, because the country is not a signatory to U.N. refugee convention.

The Afghans’ murky legal status complicates their lives in India. “Getting even a SIM card issued or renting a room becomes a nightmare, since we don’t any have proof of residence from the Indian Government,” said Pastor Jan.

India has a longstanding tradition of granting Tibetans and Sri Lankans refugee status, but migrants from countries that do not border on India must apply through the United Nations refugee agency. If their applications are rejected, they can be deported from India.

The Delhi office for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees does not discuss the status of the applications submitted by Afghan Christians.

“We do not discuss individual cases because of confidentiality rules. We conduct our refugee status determination procedures in line with U.N.H.C.R.’s global standards and guidelines,” said a U.N.H.C.R official, in an e-mail response.

The converts share a social world with an earlier wave of Afghan refugees living in Delhi, yet they face hostility from Afghan Muslim refugees, who consider the converts apostates. In June, Pastor Jan was looking for an apartment in the Lajpat Nagar area in South Delhi, when four Afghan men blocked his car.

“I don’t know how they recognized me, but they didn’t move and started hurling abuses,” recalled Pastor Jan. “One of them broke a rear view mirror before I could flee.”

Officials from the U.N.H.C.R. and the Delhi police advised him to maintain a low profile.

The refugees struggle to find jobs in Delhi. Their appearance and accents give them away as Afghans.

“We are denied jobs as we don’t have proper proof of residence,” said Pastor Jan. “Our poor Hindi and English are another barrier.”

The converts have to turn to the world they fled to make a living. Around 20,000 Afghans visit India for medical treatment every year, mostly in Delhi. They need translators to help them negotiate the city’s private hospitals. Yet the converts are circumspect about their new religious affiliation to their clients from the old country.

“We hide it even from our fellow translators, as they might disclose it to others,” said Mr. Ahmad.

“It earns us merely 250 to 500 rupees ($5 to 10) per week, an amount hardly enough for sustenance in Delhi,” said Sayed Inam, 33, a former interpreter for the U.S. Army, who left Afghanistan in February.

The children of Afghan Christian refugees attend schools run by the government or the Y.M.C.A. While the younger ones face few problems because they are starting their education in Hindi, the older ones struggle to study in a foreign language.

Despite the hostility and aggression he has faced, Pastor Jan feels his community is relatively safer in India. “The size of my community in India is only increasing,’’ he said. “I hope my community won’t have to migrate again.”

Neyaz Farooquee is a reporter with The Hindustan Times in New Delhi.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/ ... ostComment

Apparently gov't doesn't have time for Hindu refugees from Pakistan but is importing Xtian refugees from Afghanistan, the Xtian organizations never tire of shouting about "Hindu fascism" but want to come and squat here.

First its Rohingyas, now its these, next it will be Paki Shias, after that Barelvis & soon all of Pakistan can come in and squat.

Also isn't India "overpopulated" & Hindus are being constantly told how they should stop having children.

Why?

So that all these aliens can come in & fill up the place?

Let them go experience some of that Jesus love in the US.

Agnimitra · Post by **Agnimitra** » 08 Aug 2013 12:30

What is behind this "Great Afghanistan Movement" (GAM) and PakhtunTV?

"GAM: Birth and Death of Pakistan"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoELwPhnal0

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 14 Jan 2014 22:17

In 2014 US will drawdown their forces in Afghanistan. The focus will be on regional relationships.

It is an Indian imperative that Afghanistan survives as an independent state.

Altair wrote:

and

Philip wrote:Business as usual!
The US retreating from Afghanistan,leaving the country in an absolute shambles,wants India to force Karzai into toeing the Yanqiui line.Has the US never listened to India regarding Pakistan and its war of terror against India? Unfortunately the quislings in the PMO in this shameful govt. prefer to take their cue from Uncle Sam.One reason why we toook such a surprising tough stand against the US was the fact that Snake-oil found that his great "love" had betrayed him.knowing that he was destined for the garbage dump,abandoned him with alacrity and had transferred its affection to a new chick on the block,one Kejriwal!

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/i ... 575348.ece
Intelligence meet breaks India-US diplomatic ice

Joint Intelligence Council chief meets delegation from U.S. Director of National Intelligence’s office for talks focussed on Afghanistan

Indian and United States intelligence services began a three-day meeting on Monday, the first high-level dialogue between the two countries since the crisis sparked off by the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in December. Led by Joint Intelligence Council chief Ajit Lal, an Indian delegation met officials from the office of the Director of National Intelligence for the latest in a series of discussions on regional security and strategic issues.

“The latest round of the dialogue is focussed on events in Afghanistan leading up to the United States drawdown in 2014,” a highly-placed Indian government source told The Hindu. “The United States is extremely concerned at Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s delay on signing a security agreement, and hopes India will be willing to use its influence to persuade him to do so.”

Peter Lavoy, Assistant Secretary of Defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, had visited New Delhi last month for scheduled discussions on the situation in Afghanistan, following President Karzai’s visit to New Delhi. However, key defence, intelligence and diplomatic officials declined to meet Dr. Lavoy following Ms. Khobragade’s controversial arrest in New York.

Last week, two senior U.S. officials, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal postponed their visits to New Delhi.

External Affairs Ministry sources in New Delhi declined to comment on the JIC-DNI meeting, saying they could not comment on intelligence issues.

Eleven rounds of dialogue have been held between the DNI and the JIC, with the two organisations meeting each June in Washington, D.C., and in New Delhi in January. No details were immediately available on the composition of the United States’ delegation.

“It is important for India that the intelligence dialogues continue, irrespective of problems that will from time to time crop up in the relationship with the United States,” former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval told The Hindu. “Both countries have vital interests which need to be discussed at the highest level.”

Founded in 1998, the JIC is mandated to provide the government with big-picture assessments of strategic issues. Its secretariat, which reports to the Cabinet Secretariat, produces papers and strategy documents based on analysis of information from the Research and Analysis Wing, the Intelligence Bureau, and the directorates of military, naval and air intelligence.

Keywords: Indian-U.S intelligence services meeting, Devyani Khobragade issue, Joint Intelligence Council chief, Ajit Lal, Director of National Intelligence