India cautiously raising its profile in Kabul

The stakes for India are high as the US plans for a post-war Afghanistan. Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan SK Lambah met US national security adviser Tom Donilon at the White House on Monday as India looks for its place in the post-American Afghan situation.

Lambah also held discussions in the state department with Richard Holbrooke who is president Obama’s pointman on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

India views instability in Afghanistan as a great threat and looks likely to step up humanitarian, trade — and possibly military — assistance as president Obama keeps faith with his July 2011 deadline to start withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan.

So far, New Delhi has deferred to Pakistani and American sensitivities about raising India’s strategic profile in Afghanistan by not providing military assistance, but analysts say this could change once the US pulls its troops out of Afghanistan leaving it in general chaos.    

Even as Lambah talked about Kabul’s affairs with Washington, the strongest clue that India is prepared to take its role in Afghanistan beyond developmental programs to offer military assistance emerged from a leaked US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.

Months after its embassy in Kabul was targeted by suicide bombers, India was roused enough to offer the Afghan government light attack helicopters. The Indian offer was discussed threadbare in a January 2009 conversation between Afghan president Hamid Karzai and US general David Petraeus.

The leaked cable shows that predictably the Indian offer was spiked due to an “adverse reaction” feared from Pakistan which has stonewalled any Indian military involvement in Afghanistan.
According to diplomats and analysts, India is also weighing the possibility of training Afghan security personnel.

“India has adequate training facilities and can train the Afghan army and strengthen it at low cost,” said Sumit Ganguly,who is a member of the council on foreign relations.

“All New Delhi needs to do is to train the Afghan army by bringing contingents over to India. India has extensive training facilities which are lying idle. India is doing a little bit of this but India should ramp it up.”