The Delhi Regional Security Dialogue held on 10th November in Delhi is a positive step towards finding a workable solution in Afghanistan. The National Security Advisers of eight nations including India, Russia, Iran, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan participated in this Dialogue. India had extended invitation to China and Pakistan also, but they did not turn up. The meet is very important as it has almost all stakeholders. The troika of America, Russia and China meeting with Pakistan at the same time will also discuss these issues.
The important issues before the delegates were the poor condition of the Afghans who were on the verge of starvation, the possible threat of Afghanistan becoming a safe haven for breeding and training terrorists and the consequent threat of terror activities in the neighbourhood of Afghanistan and the world at large, terror funding, smuggling of narcotics and the formation of an inclusive government giving representation to all ethnic groups of Afghanistan as well as minorities, women and children. Moreover, the problem of Afghan refugees has a regional as well as global dimension.
A joint declaration was made after a thorough deliberation amongst the participating delegates, which was dubbed as Delhi Declaration. It said that Afghanistan must be provided all humanitarian assistance that it requires. However, this should be channelized through UNO and no direct assistance should be provided. This is really a good decision as it would check any bilateral bonhomie between the helping nation and Afghanistan and that helping nation won’t be in a position to further its own political, strategic and diplomatic agenda to the detriment of other countries in the region.
The declaration also said that Afghanistan won’t be allowed to be a safe haven for terrorists. And this implies that those who are nursing ambitions of settling their scores with their enemy, in this case India, will not be allowed to use Afghanistan as a springboard for launching their terror attacks against India.
India has played a vital role in the development of infrastructure in Afghanistan during the past two decades. She has faced cross border terrorism for the last three decades and the perpetrator of this cross border terrorism is elated after the recent developments in Afghanistan. The Indian initiative is a signal to China and its client state Pakistan that they won’t be given a free run in Afghanistan. India has successfully faced cross border terrorism so far, albeit at a great cost of money and men. Poor and rogue countries like Pakistan take to war of terror against their enemy like India as it is low cost and inflicts a very high cost on the opponent. It is high time, therefore, that acts of terror should be treated as a full-fledged war and should be dealt accordingly.
The Afghanistan crisis is being seen as a God sent opportunity by the enemies of India to settle score with her. The way the Delhi Declaration has been hailed by Afghanistan must have dejected Pakistan and China. The present set up in Afghanistan would do their best to get international recognition and acceptability as it is the pre -requisite for getting assistance from the world community. India is well placed to help Afghanistan as it has its own international standing and financial strength to do so. A client state like Pakistan has neither global standing nor economic resources to bail out Afghanistan from the present mess they are in. The strategic capital of Pakistan won’t be very useful in the absence of stature, reliability and financial strength. China cannot stoop to that low because of her stature and internal compulsions.
India has taken a good step and it will go a long way in restoring peace and harmony in Afghanistan and it’s neighbourhood. The U.S. must realise that any mechanism to achieve desired results in Afghanistan will not be successful without Indian participation and assistance. All U.S. assistance to Pakistan so far has gone down the drain. The U.S. would be wise enough not to put its money in a pocket with a hole. The coming weeks would be interesting to watch and let us hope for peace in the region.
The writer is a teacher of History and former Registrar of Vinoba Bhave University in Hazaribag. The views expressed by the author are his own.