The closeness of India-Afghanistan relationship is not a new phenomenon. It has existed since time immemorial, and as a close friend ever since India’s independence, we have done and will continue to do whatever is required to be done to see Afghanistan grow and progress as a close friend.

Narendra Damodardas Modi, Prime Minister of India.

This statement represents the historic, almost thousand years old, relation India shares with her strategically very important neighbour Afghanistan. India is steadily increasing her economic and political influence in Afghanistan, which has given knee jerk effects to our other historic neighbour Pakistan.  We have a very complex diplomatic history with the Graveyard of empires, a famous title for Afghanistan, which has become more complex after the peace deal. Both the nations have contributed to an ever-flourishing and comprehensive strategic partnership, through their strong determination and immense effort. The whole world endorses the efforts of India for being a pioneer in providing assistance for significant transition of a war-torn country into a potential country which is building human capacity for a better livelihood. 

India has always treated Afghanistan with her soft power diplomacy policy, which is significant in all the support we have provided to Afghanistan from the time of India’s independence. There are a lot of reasons behind India providing huge support to Afghanistan and also for why India has always remained so cautious regarding her relation with Afghanistan. Let’s now move towards the stages of this very complex and sensitive tie between India and Afghanistan that will begin with delving the history of Indo-Afghan propinquity which will be followed by the current situation and its analysis.

Peeping into the bygone time of the beginning of Indo-Afghan ties

Afghanistan is considered as one of the most unstable lands which sought several invasions due to its geo-strategic importance. The fall of Alexander, the disintegration of USSR and the decline of U.S hegemony have remained very remarkable points of Afghanistan’s history. The connectivity between India and Afghanistan can be traced back from Indus valley civilisation, the description of Gandhar and Kabul (both are a part of Afghanistan now) is there in our epics like Mahabharata. India and Afghanistan both suffered British colonialism but Afghanistan got freedom from British rule as early as in 1919. From 1919 to 1970 Afghanistan enjoyed peace, happiness and stability under an established rule of monarchy. But after 1973 the communist party came to power in Afghanistan by overthrowing King Zahir Saha, who was ruling there since 1933. This was followed by the entry of the USSR and a complete state of instability due to conflict between USSR and America. 

This conflict created the base of Afghanistan’s biggest problem which is still haunting it and the whole world at large. Yes, your thinking is on the right track, as I am talking about the Taliban. You will be amazed to know that it was America which helped current Taliban in establishing itself in Afghanistan by supporting Mujahideen in order to throw USSR from Afghanistan. But then the question arises why it is important to understand the USSR invasion and America conflict in Afghanistan while studying Indo-Afghan ties? 

India established its presence in Afghanistan in around 1950s which is marked by the roughly the 1st treaty between independent India and Afghanistan known as friendship treaty signed by both in Jan. 1950. Since India was there with Afghanistan before the interference of USSR and America, then the state of instability can be a threat to India’s presence in Afghanistan too and India cannot afford to lose such a strategically important neighbour. Thus, while discussing Indo-Afghan ties it becomes important to know how India managed to take her relation safely to a point where Afghanistan approaches India, before anyone else when they are in need. 

It is a fact of admiration that India smartly not only took her out of the danger zone rather it became a very important and trustworthy neighbour of Afghanistan. While India’s role in Afghanistan was under an unaided condition during 1979-1989, India expended her development activities in Afghanistan with a major focus on, Industry, irrigation, and hydroelectric projects. During the 1990s when Afghanistan was under the hands of Taliban, India in tandem with Iran, Russia and Tajikistan provided every possible support to the Northern Alliance (which was considered as the only possible and meaningful challenge to Taliban) and other anti-Taliban forces to counter its holding on Afghanistan. Before getting more into how India and Afghanistan relations got strengthened further, we need to understand why Afghanistan always remains the centre of focus whenever India talks about strengthening her foreign relations?

The reason for India’s soft power diplomacy with Afghanistan

Afghanistan is important for India in a multidimensional manner as it is a combination of India’s diverse interest. Following are few very important diverse interests for which Afghanistan becomes an integral part of India’s foreign policy:

• Central Asia provides India with the right platform to leverage its political, economic and cultural connections to play a leading role in Eurasia. Afghanistan plays a very prominent role here, as it is always considered as India’s gateway to Central Asia. This will serve continental outreach and will fulfil India’s maritime interest for which India is engaged in developing Chabahar port in tandem with Iran. 
• Due to India’s Pakistan centric interest, Afghanistan becomes more important as it provides India capacity to keep an eye on Pakistan and develop means and methods to influence activities in Pakistan.
• Apart from the geostrategic importance, Afghanistan can be seen as a very good choice for Indian companies due to her business potential that arises out of her mineral wealth of about $1-3 trillion of Iron ore, Lithium, Chromium, Natural gas, petroleum etc.

• Taliban has become a very big threat to India’s security not only this but militants from other such terrorist groups operated by Pakistan gets trained in Afghanistan which creates a very big security threat for India and thus, it is very important for us to protect Afghanistan from getting dominated by Radical ideologies and terrorism.
• We have a total of $3 billion investment in Afghanistan and there are around 4000 Indian workers and security personnel working on different relief and reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, their security is the responsibility of India thus, to protect our investment and people Afghanistan becomes very important for us.

There are many such small and big issues that make Afghanistan a very important point of focus for India. Now let’s move towards the other phase of India-Afghanistan ties where we will see how India has helped Afghanistan in overcoming her worse situation and have paved the path for becoming a stable country which can provide security, assistance, livelihood and better scope to her citizens.

An insight into India’s assistance to Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been the biggest example of India’s aid and assistance programs. When ‘Taliban’ came in power, the influence of India got reduced as Pakistan’s assistance to Taliban limited options for India but in 2001, when the U.S war in Afghan began India provided assistance to the U.S and in this way very cleverly India re-established herself in Afghanistan. From there India started providing major development projects in terms of education, humanitarian assistance, infrastructure projects, capacity development, technology and many more in Afghanistan. India alone in 2001, has offered Afghanistan $1.2 billion for Afghan reconstruction.

In 2011, India became the 1st country to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan. This agreement binds both the country to cooperate and support each other in fighting with terrorism and providing their security forces to each other whenever the need comes. In 2017, India contributed to the Airfreight corridor programme which involves more than 166 flight exchanges between India and Afghanistan, this was done to improve easy access to newly emerging markets. In terms of humanitarian assistance, we have a provision which speaks forth providing high-protein rich biscuits to nearly 2 million children, free medical consultation and medicine to around 30,000 Afghans monthly, India has facilitated the construction of Salma dam, Zaranj-Delaram highway and construction of Afghan parliament.

India has provided almost 1000 scholarships to students and almost 16000 Afghani students are currently studying in different universities of India by that scholarship. Not only this but India has also contributed to reconstructing the Indira Gandhi Institute of child health and also facilitated the reconstruction of Habibia school. In 2016, India gave an additional aid of $1 billion as a fund to small developing projects in Afghanistan. In recent years, India has gifted many offensive comebacks to Afghanistan like Mi25 helicopter in 2018 then HAL Cheetah light utility helicopter in 2016 and in 2019 2 Mi24v helicopters. Moreover, India has recently signed 11 MoUs with Afghanistan involving $9.5 million aid for developing clinics, infrastructure, transportation, educational institutions and many more. This was just a brief of India’s effort in maintaining this beautiful tie, which is almost 18 years old. Thus, by having an overview of how India and Afghanistan became an integral part of each other, it is very clear that the relationship is stable and growing but it is still full of complexity and needs to be handled carefully.

This was the result of goodwill created by India in the heart of Afghanistan that Mr. Khalilzad visited India seeking assistance in Afghanistan’s endeavour to go with America’s decision to talk with the Taliban. The U.S has also realised that our help will play a significant role in Afghan peace. This is a very big achievement for India and our continuous efforts will surely pay off in future by completing our desired goals that we have seen through this complex but beautiful relation.

Conclusion

India and Afghanistan have shared a relationship that can be traced back from Indus valley civilization. India has made 17 years of effort to make Afghanistan stand on her feet after getting roughly affected by different wars. India has not only contributed to developing infrastructure rather it has also contributed to her full-fledged development in terms of education, healthcare facility, technical development and whatnot. Though it has always been a core argument of other state countries that India is supporting Afghanistan just to counter Pakistan India has always denied this and has represented the trilateral relation of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan completely Independent. This relation is not static rather it will see a lot of evolution in the near future that too will decide whether India’s contribution was a fruitful one or a futile one.