Regional tension
July 12, 2011
"India wants to see a peaceful, stable, democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan," is what Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said repeatedly at each press conference during his most recent visit to Afghanistan in May.
Meanwhile, his host, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, praised the longstanding strategic friendship between their two countries over and over.
Although the list of India's contributions to rebuilding Afghanistan - hospitals, roads, bridges, machinery and technical expertise - is long, the help is not only of an altruistic nature.
Longstanding friendship
Shortly after India gained independence from the Britain in 1947, it signed a "friendship" agreement with Afghanistan. The two countries agreed to meet to discuss strategic questions on a regular basis and to develop common projects.
During the Cold War, India watched on with a spirit of goodwill as Afghanistan also got closer to its ally, the Soviet Union. However, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent nine-year war, relations between the two friends disintegrated. Nonetheless, India continued to invest in Afghan energy and industrial projects.
When the Taliban took control of the country in the 1990s, India was out of the picture. It looked on with concern as it began to see that Afghanistan could fall into the hands of its arch-rival Pakistan, which - with help from the US - had given generous support to the mujahideen in their fight against the Soviets. The rumors that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) maintain their support for the Taliban today continue to circulate.
India's time came after the fall of the Taliban. The new Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, had studied politics in India at the Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla between 1978 and 1983. Many other Afghan politicians and intellectuals had also lived in India. Bollywood films have always been popular in Afghanistan, especially among young people. This is why India is a favorite with Afghans - a good source of soft power, as experts point out.
A proxy war
In recent years, India has built consulates in four strategically important cities, Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, as well as its embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul. Pakistan has protested against this several times and accused New Delhi of wanting to spy. In return, India accuses Pakistan of being behind the 2008 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, which killed 40 people.
The nuclear-armed arch-rivals have fought three major wars since partition in 1947. Many observers think they are using Afghanistan as a proxy battleground to keep their grip on influence in the region.
Savita Pande from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi says she can understand Pakistan's fears on the basis of geographical circumstances. "India does not have its own border with Afghanistan. No country can afford to fight a war on two fronts. But Pakistan is in a unique situation, in that its relations with both its neighbors - India and Afghanistan - are extremely tense."
Terrorist threat
The strategic significance of Afghanistan has another further dimension for India, which has yet to recover from the Mumbai attacks of November 2008 - seen to be India's 9/11. Over 160 people were killed in the coordinated shooting and bombing attacks that took place simultaneously across India's financial metropolis. The terrorists were from Pakistan and some of them had been trained in Afghanistan.
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in June 2011, Indian Foreign Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna stressed that "safe havens and terror sanctuaries that poison the region" should be dismantled.
India's economic growth at an average rate of 8 percent in recent years clearly speaks for itself. For the booming economy, existing and new markets have to be secured. India is now calling self-confidently for a seat in the UN Security Council.
The budding superpower of the 21st century - alongside China - now wants to be an equal player when it comes to Afghanistan and resolving conflict in Asia.
Author: Priya Esselborn / act
Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan