Afghan President Ashraf Ghani took office in September last year, but first visited China and Pakistan before embarking on his visit to India earlier this week. This stood out in contrast with the equation of proximity of the Karzai era.
Since taking over, Dr Ghani, an intellectual and former World Bank official, has been busy cultivating the Pakistan Army in the hope that Islamabad, which had nurtured the Taliban for two decades, would help the new regime in Kabul stabilise by getting the Taliban to quit terrorist violence and move to the talking table with the Ghani government. When the Western militaries are in the process of moving out of Afghanistan, Dr Ghani’s concerns about continuing Taliban depradations, with Pakistan’s backing were understandable.
Nevertheless, the delay in visiting India, and the impression that the new Afghan leader constantly spoke of the Islamic State (Da’esh) as the destabilising terrorist outfit in the region without mentioning the Taliban and the anti-India formations like the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, fed apprehensions in New Delhi that Afghan-India relations might be changing under Dr Ghani. This was always a premature assessment. Dr Ghani’s visit should help to dispel it. Although no new security deals were struck, President Ghani told the media that his visit had produced a “forward outlook”, and noted that “ties will be expanded for peace, stability, and prosperity”.
Clearly, the Afghanistan President was trying to expand his room for manoeuvre by neutralising the negatives (Pakistan) and turning his country’s equation with China to his advantage since China has lots of cash and exercises influence over Pakistan.
This has not been at India’s cost. It is evident that a regional concord, with which Afghanistan’s neighbours are associated, will help in checking violence. President Pranab Mukherjee succinctly stated the Indian perspective when he said that India-Afghanistan relations were “beyond political and strategic considerations” and not constrained by an “expiry date or timeline”. The language is too effusive but it is a mature projection of India’s appreciation of recent events. Before any new element can be added to the Indian policy framework towards Afghanistan the new leadership in Kabul should have the latitude for diplomatic expression, provided it is not hostile to this country.
None of Afghanistan’s neighbours can offer it what India can — a democratic example and vision, besides development and defence assistance. Kabul knows that Taliban attacks have grown sharper in recent weeks despite appeasing Islamabad. The Ghani regime will naturally have to balance everything as it moves forward.
