US seeks bigger Indian role in Afghanistan
Shortly after American President Donald Trump articulated Washington's new policy for Afghanistan and South Asia envisaging a bigger role for India in trouble-torn Afghanistan, New Delhi said it "welcomed" his "determination" to step up efforts to address issues of safe havens to terrorists and other forms of cross-border support enjoyed by them, in a clear reference to Pakistan.
Warning Pakistan against continued support to terror networks, Trump said "We can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organisations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond… Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in Afghanistan. It has much to lose by continuing to harbour terrorists."
Hours after Trump's speech, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Tuesday night that "we welcome President Trump's determination to enhance efforts to overcome the challenges facing Afghanistan and confronting issues of safe havens and other forms of cross-border support enjoyed by terrorists. India shares these concerns and objectives".
What has buoyed India most by Trump's speech is his unambiguous invitation—although in a typical transactional diplomatic style—is the invitation to New Delhi for playing a bigger role in economic reconstruction and development assistance to Afghanistan.
"We appreciate India's important contributions to stability in Afghanistan, but India makes billions of dollars in trade with the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan, especially in the area of economic assistance and development," said the US President.
India has a 24 billion dollar trade balance in its favour in bilateral trade with the US.
Displaying its soft power in sharp contrast to the US' hard military strength through deployment of troops and armaments in Afghanistan, India has so far provided three billion dollars to the war-torn country making it the fifth largest aid-giver to Kabul.
India has trained in its defence and police establishments 4,000 Afghan security officers, supplied attack helicopters to Afghanistan, constructed the Afghan parliament, a huge dam, a power plant and a strategic highway connecting with Iran. And all this has been done by India facing serious threats from the Taliban and other terrorists to its men and assets in Afghanistan.
The recasting of the US policy on South Asia following Trump's lengthy discussion with his armed forces and strategists has clearly elevated India to play a more important role in partnership with America in stabilizing Afghanistan economically.
What remains to be seen is how much further India will go in helping Afghanistan to step up its soft power diplomacy on display for the last decade and half.
What is often not adequately appreciated is that the small development projects Indian government has undertaken in Aghanistan is based on needs of Afghan people. "They may not be big-ticket projects but related directly to the day-to-day life of Afghan people," said an Indian official.
Analysts and officials here read Trump's remarks about Pakistan as the strongest message by an American President to Pakistan's duplicity on terrorism but say all would depend on how the details of his policy play out.
While that geography cannot be changed, it remains to be seen what the Trump administration to implement its tough stance towards Pakistan because Trump has not disclosed how he gets to get Pakistan to change its ways.
What has encouraged Indian officials very much is Trump's remark that "For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror… Pakistan has also sheltered the same organisations that try every single day to kill our people.
"We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars, at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting. But that will have to change, and that will change immediately. No partnership can survive a country's harboring of militants and terrorists who target US service members and officials. It is time for Pakistan to demonstrate its commitment to civilisation, order, and to peace," Trump said.
This, Indian officials compared with Barack Obama's statement eight years ago when he had said that "we will strengthen Pakistan's capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists whose location is known and whose intentions are clear. America is also providing substantial resources to support Pakistan's democracy and development."
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