India's Investment in Afganistan

 New Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) 

• U.S., Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan (2021)- to promote the Afghan peace process, stability, trade-in region and enhancing regional connectivity,

Meeting on 16th April 2021 of 6+2+1 Contact Group on Afghanistan

• 6= China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
•  2 = United States and Russia
• 1= Afghanistan

 India sidelined from regional discussions on Afghanistan

• India was conspicuous by its absence from the meeting on April 16, given its historical and strategic ties with Afghanistan, but not for the first time.
• In December 2001, for example, the Indian team led by special envoy Satinder Lambah arrived in Germany’s Petersberg hotel near Bonn, where the famous Bonn agreement was negotiated, to find no reservations had been made for them at the official venue.
• In January 2010, India was invited to attend the “London Conference” on Afghanistan but left out of the room during a crucial meeting that decided on opening talks with the Taliban.

  The reason is given - 

• it holds no “boundary” with Afghanistan
• New Delhi has never announced its support for the U.S.-Taliban peace process.
• India’s resistance to publicly talking to the Taliban has made it an awkward interlocutor at any table.
• Its position that only an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and Afghan-controlled process can be allowed is a principled one, 

In both 2001 and 2010, however, India fought back its exclusion successfully. 

• At the Bonn agreement, Ambassador Lambah was widely credited for ensuring that Northern Alliance leaders came to a consensus to accept Hamid Karzai as the Chairman of the interim arrangement that replaced the Taliban regime. 
• After the 2010 conference, New Delhi redoubled its efforts with Kabul, and in 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghanistan President Karzai signed the historic Strategic Partnership Agreement, which was Afghanistan’s first such agreement with any country.

India had put all its eggs in the Ghani/Kabul basket

A two-fold effect: 

• its voice in the reconciliation process has been limited,
•  it has weakened India’s position with other leaders of the deeply divided democratic setup in Kabul such as the former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah.

India"s Goodwill dent

Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Afghanistan’s majority-Muslim citizens, many of whom have treated India as a second home, have felt cut out of the move to offer fast track citizenship to only Afghan minorities, 

 India’s assistance

 (should assure it a leading position in Afghanistan’s regional formulation).

•  more than $3 billion in projects, 
• trade of about $1 billion, 
• a $20 billion projected development expenditure of an alternate route through Chabahar, 
• as well as its support to the Afghan National Army, bureaucrats, doctors and other professionals for training in India 

Three major projects: 

1. the Afghan Parliament,  (a cost of USD 90 million, Inaugurated in 2015, The foundation stone for the new Afghan Parliament was laid in August 2005 by the last king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, in the presence of Hamid Karzai and Manmohan Singh.)
2. the Zaranj-Delaram Highway, (2005-2009 to bypass Pakistan during commercial trade at a cost of $152 million USD, The highway was designed and constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) of India. A71 0r Route 606 is a 218 km roadway. It is one of the busiest roads in Afghanistan and provides an important trade route between Iran and the rest of Asia.)
3. the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam (Salma Dam), along with hundreds of small development projects (of schools, hospitals and water projects)(Construction began in 1976, Opening date 4 June 2016) (August 2015 led to a change in nomenclature ) 

Indian government must strive to endure that its aid and assistance is broad-based, particularly during the novel coronavirus pandemic.