India and Afghanistan will hold the second Indo-Afghan Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) meeting on Monday. Afghanistan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani is in New Delhi with an inter-ministerial delegation for the meeting that is being held days after United States President Donald Trump urged India to play a bigger role in Afghanistan.
During the meeting led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj from the Indian side, the two leaders will review India’s ongoing projects in Afghanistan and discuss ways to deepen security cooperation. Rabbani will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The meeting is significant given the fact that this will be the second time India and Afghanistan will sit for SPC since 2012 when the first meeting was held.
The historic Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) was signed between former Indian PM Manmohan Singh and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in 2011.
The SPA between the two sides provides India’s assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan’s infrastructure and institutions, provide education and technical assistance to re-build Afghan capacity in different areas, encourage trade and investment in Afghanistan’s natural resources, give duty free access to the Indian market for Afghanistan’s exports support, and have security cooperation and advocate the
need for a sustained and long-term commitment to Afghanistan by the international community.
The SPC meeting on Monday is the first one to be held under the new Governments in both India and Afghanistan ever since Modi became PM on May 2014 and Ashraf Ghani became President in September 2014.
In between three times the SPC meeting had to be rescheduled due to growing closeness between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was only after Ghani burnt his hands with Pak and realised that none can replace time-tested and “true friend” India, things started improving.
Besides, as Afghanistan underwent political, security and economic transitions in 2015, India stood by the country and allayed fears about its future by making a long-term commitment to the security and development. India has made huge financial commitments to Afghanistan and is among the largest donors in the region for the rebuilding of the war-torn nation.
It is expected that Afghanistan will renew its demand for greater Indian involvement in the country apart from discussing a joint strategy are also expected to consider how they could jointly combat Pak sponsored terrorism against both India and Afghanistan.
Enhancing defence cooperation and supply of defense equipment to Afghanistan is also likely to come up for discussions even as the two leaders review the entire gamut of relations, including the Indian humanitarian assistance and development work in Afghanistan.
US President Trump recently while announcing his government’s Afghanistan Policy had sought a bigger role for India, a decision that India is yet to take. However, India has already intensified its efforts to increase it support to Afghanistan in various ways. The two countries recently started a unique air-trade corridor to help Afghanistan reach Indian markets for supply of its goods that remain blocked on the ground by Pakistan. In additional, In India and Afghanistan in 2016 signed an extradition treaty to facilitate exchange of terrorists and other criminals.
In December 2015, Modi went to Kabul to jointly inaugurate the Afghan Parliament made by India. In June 2016, Modi visited Herat to jointly inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam while in August 2016, the two leaders through video conferencing inaugurated the restored Stor Palace in Kabul. All these projects were part of India’s commitment to Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development.