INDIA & PAKISTAN invoke completely different feelings in the minds of Afghan people.
In this video, we look at how India and Pakistan have played completely different role in the
rebuilding phase of Afghanistan.
This video has been divided into 2 sections.
In the first section we will look at 3 different ways how India is cooperating with Afghanistan
to meet its current challenges.
In the second section, we will look at 2 ways Pakistan is destabilizing Afghanistan.
India and Afghanistan share a long history.
Over the past decade and a half, India and Afghanistan have seen their ties deepening
— the process started with the Taliban government getting toppled in December 2001.
INDIA has gone ahead and helped Afghanistan in number of ways. Here are the top 3 areas of cooperation.
India’s bilateral trade with Afghanistan stood at $684.47 million in 2014-15, an increase
of 0.20% $683.10 million a year earlier, and 20.41% higher than $568.44
million in 2010-11.
India’s exports to Afghanistan in 2014-15 stood at $ 422.56 million, while its imports
from that country were worth $261.91 million.
Despite the lack of direct land access, India is the second-largest destination for Afghan exports.
These exports are key to slow but steady improvements in socio-economic conditions of Afghanistan.
India shares a close bilateral relationship with Afghanistan and had signed a strategic
partnership agreement in 2011.
Here are few important cases:
1. India has provided Afghanistan, 4 Mi-25s helicopters The Mi-25s will replace Afghanistan’s aging
Mi-35 attack helicopters and provide a much-needed boost to Afghanistan’s air support capabilities
in the ongoing struggle against the Taliban across the country.
Mi-25 is a close-air support aircraft armed with a YakB 4 barreled, 12.7mm, built-in,
flexibly mounted machine gun, as well as rocket and grenade launchers.
It can be deployed against ground troops including armored and slow moving air targets.
It can also serve as a low-capacity troop transport (up to eight paratroopers), and
be used for medical evacuation missions.
The helicopter is thus well-suited for the AAF’s role in helping the Afghan National
Army take Taliban positions with close-air support.
2. Apart from this specific assists, India has provided Afghan security personal with different
light equipment’s like machine guns etc.
3. India has also been training Afghan forces in counter insurgency operations.
Indian Army is also training Afghan women to serve in the Afghan National Army (ANA).
The first batch of the 100 Afghan women soldiers started trained by the Indian Army from Aug.
India has so far given financial assistance worth over $2 billion to Afghanistan and has
been involved in massive developmental efforts in the war-torn country.
Here are 2 most important examples:
1. Salma Dam, an ambitious $300 million hydroelectric and irrigation dam located on Harirod River
in Chisti district of Herat, is a flagship development project sponsored by India.On
4 June 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi got to push a red button together with Afghan
president Ashraf Ghani, opening the sluice gates and powering the turbines.
With a 20km-long and 3.7km-wide reservoir,
which has a storage capacity of 640 million cubic metres, Salma Dam can irrigate 80,000
acres of farmland and generate 43 MW of electricity.
The people in Herat, have been overwhelmingly
supportive of the project.
In August 2015, thousands of people assembled in the Herat Stadium to celebrate the progress
of work on the dam.
People performed 'Attan', the national dance of Afghanistan, and presented a bouquet of
flowers to the Indian Consulate staff as a token of appreciation for India's development
assistance to Afghanistan.
As a tribute to the growing friendship between the two neighboring countries, the Afghan
government decided to rechristen the dam as the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam.
2. On December 25, 2015, during a state visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the
new Parliament building was inaugurated along with President Ashraf Ghani.
The foundation stone for the new Afghan Parliament was laid in August 2005 by the last king of
Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, in the presence of Hamid Karzai and Manmohan Singh (former PM of India).
More than 500 personnel had worked on the building,
most of them Indian nationals.
After completion, this is believed to be one of the best parliaments building in the world.
The main attraction of the building is a bronze dome of 32 meter diameter and 17.15 meter
height is considered to be the largest dome in Asia.
AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN are neighboring countries (share land border)
Afghan Pakistan relations have been blowing hot and cold.
Lets look into the 2 main issues.
In recent years, the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has arguably become the chief source of bilateral tensions.
Kabul has repeatedly accused Pakistan’s security establishment of destabilizing Afghanistan
through its support of the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network, including through
the provision of sanctuaries in FATA and elsewhere in Pakistan.
The Afghan Taliban’s top leadership is based
in Quetta, though some top-ranking figures may be in Karachi.
In 2013, Nasiruddin Haqqani, a Haqqani Network leader, was shot dead near Islamabad – which
is not far from Rawalpindi, the location of Pakistan’s military headquarters and a city
where some believe other Haqqani leaders are based.
The Pakistani army has been described as the
"Godfather" of the Taliban.
Even that might understate its influence. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently demanded
that Pakistan either take military action against Taliban commanders on its soil or
arrest them and hand them over to Kabul.
Pakistan has mastered the art of pretending
to help the United States while actually supporting its most deadly foes.
Supporting Taliban helps Pakistan in securing USA’s aid and also enables it to influence
Afghanistan’s internal affairs. Pakistan has long been accused by international
circles of protecting the Afghan Taliban so as to use them as proxies in Afghanistan with
an aim to curtail Indian influence in its western neighborhood.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Pakistan must allow his country direct access to India through Wagah border in Lahore.
At present, Pakistan allows Afghan trucks
carrying goods meant for India only up to its last checkpoint at Wagah and not to the
Indian checkpoint at Attari which is just less than a kilometer away.
This is one of many ways, Pakistan has tried to restrict Afghanistan's development and use it as a lever against USA & India
It is very clear from this video that, India is helping Afghanistan get up to its feet
and Pakistan on the other hand is trying drive Afghanistan back.