India has very old historical, political and cultural links with Afghanistan .All surviving heads of government or spouses have had Indian connections. Ex-king Zahir Shah’s father and brother were born in Dehra Dun, former president (Sigbetullah) Mojadidi’s ancestors are buried in Sirhind, former president Najibullah’s widow lives in Delhi and President Karzai was educated in Shimla

Although government has been established but re-emergence of Taliban is reason to worry. India believes that early economic recon­struction of Afghanistan is one of the most important requirements for the return of peace and stability to that country and the region as a whole.

Indian policy towards Afghanistan, pursued by successive Congress governments till 1995, had placed emphasis on the historical and cultural ties with the two peoples.

India and Afghanistan have established a strategic partnership. India’s historical and civilizational relationship with Afghanistan is being further strengthened by India’s active engagement in the development and reconstruction process of Afghanistan. Afghanistan joined the SAARC community in 2007 and India stands committed to help Afghanistan integrate into the regional economy of south Asia. Both these communities believe that democracy and development are the key instruments to become a source of regional stability.

India has played an active role in the development of Afghanistan based on the understanding that social and economic development in Afghanistan is crucial to regional stability. The principal objective of India’s development partnership is to assist in building indigenous afghan capacity and institutions and to ensure that development touches all the regions of Afghanistan and encompasses all the sectors of development.

India has pursued a "soft power" strategy toward Afghanistan, sticking to civilian rather than military matters. In consonance with the priorities laid down by the Karzai government, Indian assistance has focused on building human capital and physical infrastructure, improving security, and helping the agricultural and other important sectors of the country's economy. The Indian government is building roads, providing medical facilities, and helping with educational programs in an effort to develop and enhance long-term Afghan capabilities.

Phases in Relations

Till 1995

• The primacy for people-to-people relations stemmed from close fraternal feelings towards Pashtuns who were participants in India's freedom struggle.
• Secondly, India stuck to a line of non-interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs. Thus, following Mujahideen takeover in Kabul in 1991, when individual groups gearing up for the looming intra-Afghan strife began to seek Indian patronage, New Delhi firmly discouraged such "feelers". India would not be party to an intra-Afghan strife. Thirdly, India consistently regarded that Afghan people should decide on their form of government by themselves through sustained intra-Afghan dialogue. India held to this line even when Peshawar-based Mujahideen groups, rooted in the culture of jihad, grabbed power.
• Finally, Indian policy called for an independent, non-aligned and strong Afghanistan that would be free from outside interference.

Post 1995

Since 1995, however, there have been departures in policy. These were initially digressions or marginal deviations. In September 1999, however, the then External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, openly called for a "pro-active" policy towards Afghanistan and underlined that India had vital interests in Afghanistan. When he said the days of India's "supine acceptance" of developments in Afghanistan were over, Mr. Singh was articulating an altogether new template of policy. Justifying the shift, he had said that India had evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the Kargil incursion — evidence "we will reveal at an appropriate time." Admittedly, there has been some degree of course correction in the period since June 2002 when Jaswant Singh left office as External Affairs Minister.

• Thus, India has picked up its moribund links with the majority Pashtun community. India's exclusive alliances with hand-picked non-Pashtun groups are giving way to even-handed dealings with all Afghan groups cutting across ethnic, religious, regional divides.
• Civilian, humanitarian, people-to-people contact has been gaining ascendancy in India's diplomacy. Without doubt, India has begun to edge away from its all-embracing diplomatic cooperation with the United States on Afghanistan that was fostered under Jaswant Singh's watchful eye.

India Interests inAfghanistan

Indian efforts in Afghanistan are underpinned by the following key objectives:

1.    Negating influence of ISI backed Taliban: This area has acted as breeding ground and launch pad for anti-India activities.

2.    Drug trafficking: India has the largest opiate-using population in the sub-region. Afghanistan’s opium make its way to the Indian market through the Indo–Pakistani border in the Punjab. Opium addiction has grown at an alarming rate, particularly amongst the youth in the border villages, inflicting tremendous damage on the country’s social fabric. The other disconcerting trend for India has been the strengthening linkages between drugs trafficking and the Taliban insurgency. The money generated from drugs-trafficking is being used to fund the supply of sophisticated arms and to win over foot soldiers for the insurgency by paying them a monthly salary.

3.    Securing Afghanistan as a trade and energy corridor to Central Asia: A stable Afghanistan has the potential to serve as a key land bridge to facilitate India’s energy and commercial interests in hydrocarbon-rich Central Asia, thus facilitating the diversification of oil and gas supplies and reducing India’s excessive dependence on supplies from the Middle East. India joined the ambitious $7,500m TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) pipeline initiative, which was envisaged to carry 30,000m cu feet of gas from the Daulatabad field in Turkmenistan

4. Potential of mineral wealth in Afghanistan: Afghanistan also has considerable amounts of untapped reserves of oil and natural gas, a vast array of industrial metals such as copper, gold, iron, cobalt and lithium. India has worked towards developing an alternative trade corridor going down to Chabahar, India hopes to achieve two objectives. It will provide land-locked Afghanistan with shorter and alternative access to the sea, thereby reducing its dependency on Pakistan

5.    Bringing Afghanistan into trade linkages of South Asia: The decision to admit Afghanistan as a full member of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) at its 14th summit in New Delhi in April 2007 was as much strategic as it was commercial. On the commercial front, with the passage in 2006 of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), which eases tariff barriers, sub continental trade is expected to benefit.

Challenges toIndian Policy

The key challenges facing Indian policy in Afghanistan can broadly be classified under two fronts: security and diplomacy.

1.    Security: India has always been a target by ISI backed Taliban. Not only Indians in India, but Indians in Afghanistan were targeted numerous times and many Indians lost their lives in this. Pakistan’s main aim is to wipe off Indian leverage in Afghanistan. But if this is achieved then India shall suffer a lot.

2.    Diplomacy: On the diplomatic plane, the challenges before India are threefold: encourage working towards evolving a multi-ethnic political solution to the Afghanistan, Understanding Taliban insurgency, India has to make creative moves in Afghanistan and India also needs to effectively leverage its soft power prowess in Afghanistan and reinforce it with a more active role in the country’s military sector.

India’ Constructive Role inAfghanistan

• India has offered extensive development assistance program, making India the 5th largest bilateral donor in Afghanistan after the US, the UK, Japan and Germany.
• India’s program covers four broad areas – infrastructure projects, humanitarian assistance, small and community based development projects and education and capacity development.
• The 218 km road project from Zaranj to Delaram in south western Afghanistan to facilitate movement of goods and services to the Iranian border and onward to the Chahbahar port.
• India constructed the 202 kms road along DC transmission line from pul-e-khumri to Kabul and a Kv substation at Chimtala, bringing Uzbek electricity and lighting up the city of Kabul throughout the year.
• The other two major infrastructure projects, the construction of the afghan parliament in Kabul and the construction of Salma dam power project in Herat province.
• Under humanitarian assistance to Afghan schools children through the world food program.
• The Indian missions in the five major cities are providing free medical consultations and medicine to over 30,000 Afghanis every month.
• India has assisted in expansion of Afghan National TV network.

Challenges Posed After WithdrawalofUS Led ISAF inAfghanistan

United States has announced to completely pull out its forces from Afghanistan till the end of 2014 and has started delegating control of parts of the war-torn country to Afghan authorities. NATO will withdraw its 87,000 troops by the end of 2014 after 13 years of fighting the war against Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Implications of withdrawal of troops:

Regional Security: the militants would be re-organized/restructured and could threaten the peace of the entire region by drawing the neighbouring countries in the war and endangering stability of the south and central Asia. Spillover effects will reverberate in India as well.

Economy:  Afghanistan is decades away from self sufficiency — it currently covers only about 20 percent of its own bills, with the rest paid by the United States and its allies. As the country is dependent upon aid, therefore it has been less focused upon trade over the last decade. Rampant smuggling and corruption have almost ditched Afghanistan’s economy, there is no proper check and balance system in this regard and there is a fear that after 2014, a weak economy will be one of the biggest challenges which will destbalize the economic and governance structure in country

Pakistan Interference: After 2014, Pakistan interference can mount in Afghanistan. The stability of Afghanistan is closely intertwined with developments in neighboring Pakistan. Islamabad has assisted the Taliban in the past and once again stands accused by the United States of supporting the Taliban groups fighting ISAF forces in Afghanistan.

Illegal drug trafficking: Afghanistan remains by far the leading cultivator and producer of opium in the world. Poppy cultivation and illicit trafficking of opiates threaten the health and well-being of people in the region and beyond. They fuel crime and corruption, undermine stability and can be used to finance terrorist activity.

As developments in Afghanistan will directly impinge on India’s security, and the search for the ‘end game’ quickens, New Delhi will have to strengthen its position as a serious stakeholder in the long term stabilisation of Afghanistan and as a partner in the nation building process.

CHABAR PORT

India, Iran, and Afghanistan have finalized the parameters of a trilateral agreement known as the Chabahar Agreement(2016), which will allow India access to Afghanistan via the strategically located Iranian port of Chabahar, which sits on the Gulf of Oman.It will allow Indian goods to reach Afghanistan without having to first bypass Pakistan, which has a limited trade relationship with New Delhi due to diplomatic tensions and a territorial dispute between the two countries.

India and Iran had first broached the idea of Indian access to Chabahar in 2003, when they agreed to jointly develop the port. In part due to increased Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program and India’s rapprochement with the United States following the landmark 2005 framework between the two countries, the development of Chabahar stagnated on the India-Iran agenda.

In May 2015, two months before world powers and Iran announced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program, Indian Transportation Minister Nitin Gadkari visited Iran to sign a memorandum of understanding on Chabahar. The finalization of the Chabahar agreement is not only an important development in the India-Iran relationship, but it also shows that New Delhi is serious on delivering on its commitments in Afghanistan. In December 2015, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan, he and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani discussed Chabahar and urged a conclusion of a final agreement.

The increase in connectivity afforded by the port could allow Afghan exports cheaper access to markets in India. Currently, an overwhelming amount of Afghan manufactured goods travel through Karachi, Pakistan. In February 2016, Afghan officials said that Afghan exports through Karachi had declined 40 percent amid political tensions between Kabul and Islamabad. Such problems are likely to go away after the operationalisation of the agreement.

HEART OF ASIA- ISTANBUL PROCESS

Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was established in 2011 as a platform to discuss regional issues including security, economic cooperation and connectivity among Afghanistan, its neighbours and regional countries with a view to promote lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan. The Istanbul Process provides a new agenda for regional cooperation in the ‘Heart of Asia’ by placing Afghanistan at its center and engaging the ‘Heart of Asia’ countries in sincere and result-oriented cooperation for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, as well as a secure and prosperous region as a whole.

The countries participating in the Istanbul process have agreed on the following three elements for the follow-up to the Istanbul Process:

 A) Political consultation involving Afghanistan and its near and extended neighbours.

B)    A sustained incremental approach to implementation of the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) identified in the Istanbul Process document; and

C)    Seeking to contribute and bring greater coherence to the work of various regional processes and organisations, particularly as they relate to Afghanistan.

India is actively participating in all the six confidence-building measures (CBMs) under this mechanism, namely, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, disaster management, education, regional infrastructure and the trade, commerce and investments (TCI) CBMs. India leads the trade, commerce and investment opportunities CBM, which is implemented by Ficci (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) under the guidance of the ministry of external affairs and the department of commerce.

Apart from India, the Heart of Asia initiative involves 13 other countries - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Apart from the 14 countries directly participating in the conference, there are 17 supporting countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Iraq, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Britain, the US and the European Union (EU) as well as 11 regional and international organisations supporting this process, including the UN, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The first foreign ministers level meeting of the initiative was held under the aegis of the 'Istanbul Conference for Afghanistan: Security and Cooperation in the Heart of Asia' that was convened on November 2, 2011 in Istanbul.

The second conference was held in Kabul in 2012, the third in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2013, the fourth in Beijing in 2014, and the fifth in Islamabad on December 9, 2015.

India hosted the senior officials of the process in January 17, 2014 here and is set to host the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the HoA Process in the last quarter of 2016.

Pakistan had hosted the fifth Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference in Islamabad on December 9, 2015. The conference had adopted a forward looking Islamabad Declaration entitled ‘Emphasising Enhanced Cooperation for Countering Security Threats and Promoting Regional Connectivity’.

The three key elements of the Heart of Asia Process are: political consultations, involving regular meetings at the foreign ministers level; CBM implementation, involving a sustained, incremental approach to implementation of the CBMs agreed at the Istanbul conference; and synergy among regional organisations, involving participation of all regional organisations on a single platform with the goal of bringing greater coherence to the various initiatives and processes. The Istanbul Process emphasises on the important role of existing regional organisations, and intends to support and strengthen their efforts in promoting economic cooperation and integration in the region, improved security, and greater people-to-people relations.

Recent Development in India – Afghanistan Relations

India developed following Infrastructure in Afghanistan

Newly built Afghan Parliament

• Salma irrigation and electricity project (aka India-Afghanistan Friendship Dam)
•  Stor palace
•  Zaranj-Delaram highway to Iran
• Afghan diplomats, administrators and soldiers are sent to India for professional training
• Kabul’s biggest children’s hospital and medical missions in their major cities
• Kabul’s most prestigious high school,
• Transmission lines that light up Kabul and the buses that ferry commuters in the capital.