The 450-year-old Grand Trunk Road linking Kolkata with Kabul exemplifies the connectivity – and security – that once bound India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in a web of economic prosperity, and underlines the imperative for land access and united action against terrorism for regional stability and development.
Terrorism being the greatest impediment to peace and progress in Afghanistan, Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj expressed willingness to help Kabul strengthen its defence. In an oblique reference to Pakistan, she added: “It is also the collective duty of all of us to ensure the forces of terrorism and extremism do not find sanctuaries and safe havens in any name, form or manifestation. We, in Afghanistan’s proximity, have a particular responsibility in this regard.” Last month, Afghan National Security Advisor Hanif Atmar visited New Delhi and demanded military equipment, including offensive heavy weaponry, including four Russian-built Mi-25 attack helicopters.
Taliban gunmen attacked the Kandahar Airfield, a major military base, while the conference was on, at sundown on December 8, killing 37 civilians and injuring 30. The fighting ended in the wee hours of December 9, with nine Taliban fighters killed, but the military did not divulge information about casualties among Afghan security forces and foreign troops stationed at the airfield.
Land access with Afghanistan was forthrightly demanded by the Indian foreign minister at the fifth ‘Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process’ meeting at Islamabad (Dec. 9). Expressing keenness to join the Afghanistan-Pakistan trade and transit agreement (APTTA) which came into effect in June 2011 and allows Afghan trucks to carry Afghan products to the Attari-Wagah (Amritsar) border, she said Afghanistan’s growth depends on full and direct access to India’s markets so that it can take advantage of the zero-duty regime.
Arguing that “The heart of Asia cannot function if arteries are clogged,” she urged Islamabad to permit Afghan trucks to ferry Indian products to markets in Afghanistan and central Asia from the Attari-Wagah border, to make Afghan trucking cost effective and benefit the region, a concession Islamabad has consistently denied to limit Indian influence in Kabul. Urging both nations to show “maturity and self-confidence to do business with each other,” Swaraj pointedly said India could access Afghanistan via other routes, notably the deep-water Chabahar port being developed jointly with Iran, where all three nations are cooperating to develop trilateral transit to augment connectivity with Afghanistan and beyond.
Swaraj’s presence in Islamabad follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s engaging with his counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the sidelines of the climate conference in Paris, which led to a dramatic meeting of the National Security Advisors of both countries in Bangkok, where they discussed terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir and a range of issues. The Bangkok venue subtly removed irritants like Kashmiri separatists spoiling the atmospherics and left Swaraj free to focus on Afghanistan.
The theme of the conference was “Enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the Heart of Asia region”. It aimed at addressing Afghanistan’s concerns after the withdrawal of the US-led International Security Assistance Force, including future of the stalled reconciliation process. On July 7, 2015, Pakistan hosted talks between representatives of the Afghan Government and Afghan Taliban in Murree, attended by US and China representatives, but the second round of the talks, scheduled for July 31, were cancelled following reports that Mullah Omar had died two years ago.
Since then, conflicting reports regarding the health (or death) of his successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, indicate a leadership crisis among the Taliban. Pakistan Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif’s visited Washington last month and met Vice President Joe Biden and others to discuss reviving the reconciliation process and shared concerns that those opposed to any deal with the Taliban (former President Hamid Karzai) may subvert the process.
Though Swaraj was tactful, conference co-host, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, spoke of the “unintended consequences” of Pakistan’s military operations against militancy which have pushed up to 500,000 Pakistani refugees on Afghan soil. He said that though the Taliban began as an Afghan phenomenon, the conflict is driven by regional and international terror groups, and Al Qaeda, Daesh and terrorists from China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Middle East are all present in Afghanistan. The recent terror incidents in Istanbul, Paris, Sharm-el-Shaikh and San Bernardino show that this is a global problem.
The Afghan President, who has often accused Pakistan of not doing enough to end terrorist bases on its soil from where attacks are launched against Afghanistan, called for a mechanism of regional cooperation to examine “how the networks of terror coordinate, co-finance, what is their linkage with the criminal economy, how is radicalism shaping and maligning our holy religion and our opportunities for global engagement and dialogue.” He said Daesh/ISIS is only a more virulent form of Al Qaeda, and alluded to “enemies” who had unsuccessfully tried to divide Afghanistan by using non-State actors as instruments of foreign policy. The tenseness in Afghan-Pakistan ties was amply reflected when Ghani said Kabul doubted if Pakistan “truly acknowledges Afghanistan as a sovereign Afghan state with its legitimate government and its legitimate constitution”.
Elimination of terrorism could generate double-digit growth and remove poverty for the region, he said, claiming that Afghanistan has done much to establish regional cooperation in 2015, most notably, Turkmen railways, transmission lines, highways, gas pipelines and oil pipelines reaching Afghanistan; TAPI pipeline to be inaugurated in Turkmenistan; Transmission line from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan; Gas pipeline accords, including CASA-1000; Chabahar port in which India and Iran have jointly invested; Five-Nation agreements on railways with China; Highway programme to link Herat to Iran, Turkmenistan and will open way for Iran to Tajikistan and China; Special economic zones planned in each of Afghanistan’s nine airports between 2016-2032 which will be able to earn revenue of $32 billion; India-Afghanistan Friendship Dam to operate starting spring 2016 and will next year generate 242 megawatts of power ─ 42MW from hydro, 100MW from natural gas, 100MW from solar energy.
While Afghanistan is thus racing towards regional integration with Central Asia, East Asia and West Asia, all ambitious projects of cooperation for transit and linkages to Pakistan are still dormant, Ghani stated pointedly.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif denied supporting Afghan Taliban fighters, affirmed support for Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and favoured intensification of efforts to achieve a peaceful neighbourhood. Pakistan would support an Afghan-owned and led peace and reconciliation process which remains the most viable option to end violence and promote stability in Afghanistan. He said that Pakistan’s military operations Zarb-i-Azb and National Action Plan were delivering positive results against terrorism. The US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the conference that Pakistan should use its influence with the Afghan Taliban to push for Afghan reconciliation.
Emerging threats from groups like Daesh/ISIS is real and its foothold in the lucrative drug trade calls for a more concerted regional response. The Central Asian states are convinced that Daesh has a strong presence in Afghanistan and intends to spread its tentacles into their territory. India, Iran, Russia and China would be equally concerned at the spread of the drug trade in the region.
The Islamabad Declaration also called on all Afghan Taliban groups to enter into peace talks with the Afghan government. The sixth meeting of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process will be hosted by India in 2016.
Abplive.in, 10 December 2015
http://www.abplive.in/blog/afghanistan-critical-in-india-pakistan-equation