India tells Putin of Afghan fears

India is calling on Russia to reach out to Afghanistan’s neighbours to start preparing a strategy for when Nato forces pull out to prevent extremist forces destabilising central Asia and southern Russia.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
India renews vow to stay in Afghanistan - Mar-07
Russia seen as route into Afghanistan - Feb-07
India and Pakistan talks end without deal - Feb-25
US doubts Islamabad’s will to pursue militants - Mar-09
Veterans of Soviet war see same errors by US - Nov-30

New Delhi’s desire to intensify talks with Moscow over the future of Afghanistan comes as concerns rise among neighbours of the war-torn state about a possible reconciliation with the Taliban and ultimately its return to political power in Kabul.

Russia has preferred to keep a focus on the drugs-trafficking menace emanating from Afghanistan rather than consider a fuller international engagement over a country that inflicted humiliation on the Russian army in the 1980s. Afghanistan is highly sensitive for Russia, as it lost thousands of soldiers in its war with mujahideen fighters, a defeat that encapsulated its decline in the closing years of the cold war.

Speaking after a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, said on Friday night: “We have agreed to intensify our consultations on Afghanistan and the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism in our region.”

New Delhi is concerned that a Nato withdrawal could lead to Afghanistan falling under the control of extremists, undermining regional security and handing Pakistan, the Taliban’s traditional sponsor, more influence. As such it is very keen to develop – with Afghanistan’s neighbours – plans to shore up the long-term stability of the country.

Top Indian officials say India is “engaging deeply” with Russia over Afghanistan, and that shared concerns were discussed by the two leaders. The Nato alliance will be wary of deeper dialogue between Russia and India. The US and other western powers want India, which has a $1.3bn development programme in Afghanistan, to remain aligned with Nato policy. They fear any suggestion of steps towards reforming the former Northern Alliance, a military political coalition of Uzbekhs, Tajiks and Hazara, that fought the Taliban from the late 1990s with support from regional allies.

Earlier this week, an influential member of India’s National Security Advisory Board told Russian diplomats that Moscow should “chart a hedging strategy” with India, Iran and central Asian states in response to “very disquieting” events in Afghanistan. Kanwal Sibal, a former foreign secretary and ambassador to Russia, said the US wanted to “cut its losses in Afghanistan as quickly as possible”.

“India and Russia should be worried at the strategic depth that the Wahabbist [a militant form of Sunni ideology] will acquire in the region, threatening central Asia and India,” he added.

Indian concerns about Afghanistan – where the US recently committed another 30,000 troops – have been mounting since the London conference on the war-torn country earlier this year.

On the eve of that conference General Stanley McChrystal, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, raised the prospect that the US troop surge would lead to a negotiated peace with the Taliban.

Advisers to Mr Singh have criticised the proposal to buy off Taliban fighters, saying the approach is rooted in Britain’s 19th century failures in Afghanistan.