India-Afghanistan Bilateral Relationship

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• India-Afghanistan Bilateral Relationship
• India’s Major Developmental Projects in Afghanistan
• Implications of Taliban’s Return to Power in Afghanistan
• News Summary
• Is this the Turning Point in India-Afghanistan Relationship?
• Does this mean that India-Afghanistan have no Relations?
• Way Ahead

Why in News?

• On September 30, a statement carrying the seal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan announced the closure of the Embassy of Afghanistan in Delhi.

India-Afghanistan Bilateral Relationship

• India and Afghanistan have a strong relationship based on historical and cultural links.
• In recent past, India-Afghanistan relations have been further strengthened by the Strategic Partnership Agreement, which was signed between the two countries in October 2011.
• The Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between the two sides, provides for:
  • Assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure and institutions,
  • Education and technical assistance,
  • Providing duty free access to the Indian market for Afghanistan's exports
• The bilateral trade between the two countries amounts to $1.5 billion (0.19% of India's world trade).
  • India’s exports include pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, computers and related materials, cement, sugar, etc.
  • Afghanistan’s exports include mainly fresh and dried fruits.

India’s Major Developmental Projects in Afghanistan

• India has provided assistance on more than 400 projects in Afghanistan.
• It has built vital roads, dams, electricity transmission lines and substations, schools and hospitals, etc.
• The developmental assistance is estimated to be worth over $3 billion.
• Major projects include:
  • Afghan-India Friendship Dam:
    • Located on the Hari River, the hydropower and irrigation project was inaugurated by India in 2016.
    • The Taliban claim the area around the dam is now under their control.
  • Zaranj – Delaram Highway:
    • Located close to Afghanistan’s border with Iran, 218-km highway was built by India’s Border Road Organisation (BRO).
    • With Pakistan denying India overland access for trade with Afghanistan, the highway is of strategic importance to India, as it provides an alternative route into landlocked Afghanistan through Iran’s Chabahar port.
    • India had transported 75,000 tonnes of wheat through Chabahar to Afghanistan during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Afghan Parliament:
    • The Afghan Parliament in Kabul was built by India, at the cost of $90 million.
    • It was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India in 2015.

Implications of Taliban’s Return to Power in Afghanistan

• In August 2021, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan through a military offensive that swept across the country.
• This has raised the following potential concerns for India:

National Security Concerns:

• Terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad that have been keeping bases and training grounds along the southern provinces of Afghanistan that border Pakistan, could now have more ungoverned spaces to carry out attacks against India.
• With Taliban’s control over Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies will have a bigger role to influence outcomes for the country. This will leave a much smaller role for Indian development and infrastructure role in Afghanistan.

Trade Relations:

• Trade through Afghanistan under a Taliban regime would be routed through Karachi and Gwadar (both in Pakistan), and the Indian investment in the Chabahar port, meant to circumvent Pakistan, may become unviable.

Threat of Drug Trafficking:

• Afghanistan accounted for 85% of the total global opium production in 2020.
• Drugs have been a major source of revenue for the Taliban. With the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy, the Taliban will rely heavily on drugs money to maintain control over their cadres.
• There is a threat of a steep surge in cross-border trafficking of heroin and crystal methamphetamine.

News Summary

• On September 30, a statement carrying the seal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan announced the closure of the Embassy of Afghanistan in Delhi.
• In its official communication, the Embassy of Afghanistan blamed multiple factors including lack of cooperation from the Government of India and a lack of resources to operate any further.
• Furthermore, the embassy has urged the Indian government to fly the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan over embassy premises. It has also asked New Delhi to hand over the mission to a “legitimate government” of Afghanistan sometime in the future.

Is this the Turning Point in India-Afghanistan Relationship?

• The Taliban fighters who quickly took over all the major cities and infrastructure of the country, as the U.S. forces carried out a withdrawal, were not recognised by India as de facto rulers.
• With the displacement of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi had begun to work as a “stateless mission” as it did not represent the current rulers of Kabul, that is the Taliban, with whom India has no diplomatic relationship.
• In effect, the embassy of Afghanistan was performing a ceremonial or a symbolic role, helping out Afghan citizens and travellers in India deal with the difficulties they have been facing because of the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
• Moreover, the ambassador of the previous regime of President Ashraf Ghani, Farid Mamundzay, left India and has not been seen for over three months.

Does this mean that India-Afghanistan have no Relations?

• Despite the closure of the embassy in Delhi, India and Afghanistan are continuing engagement with each other in a curious way.
• India has been maintaining a “technical team” in Kabul where the staff provides visas to Afghan traders and travellers to India.
• There are two weekly flights that carry Afghan citizens and items to India.
• India uses the flights while sending humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. That apart, some Indian goods are also entering Afghanistan through other countries like Iran and the UAE.

Way Ahead

• India has not recognised Taliban formally but Indian diplomats have been engaged with the Taliban since the immediate aftermath of the fall of Kabul in August 2021.
• Indian diplomats have met the Taliban’s representatives in multiple locations under multilateral initiatives.
• On September 29, India sent a representative to Kazan, Tatarstan in Russia to engage with the Taliban under the Moscow format dialogue.
• That apart, Taliban is quickly gaining international recognition from rival powers like China which sent a new ambassador to Kabul in September.
• With Iran, Pakistan, the UAE, Russia, Qatar and China warming ties with the Taliban, there is obvious pressure on India to reconsider its position on the Taliban.
• The Taliban has been urging India to support it with its economic revitalisation through projects like electricity generation and road building works.
• India, however, has not yet indicated that it will review its position on the Taliban.

Q1) Is Afghanistan a member of SAARC?

SAARC has eight member countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka).

Q2) How many countries are in International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC)?

The member countries of the INSTC include India, Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Syria, Turkey, and Ukraine, with Bulgaria as the observer state.

Source: The shutdown of the Afghan embassy