India, Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement

[Adux]

India has signed a pact that covers the military, infrastructure building and mining with Afghanistan a day or two ago.

India trains Afghan officers in the military academies.

India has to set up a Military academy in Afghanistan and regimental centres (to train the troops).

To be able to carry out infrastructure building and mining, India has to have sanitised working environment.

It will require adequate protection in the form of troops/ civil security agencies.

If India is serious, it is feasible.

Brigadier,

Are we going to use the Central Asian route or Iranian route? That is the golden question, is DM in Tajikistan and Russia for the same? If so, what is happening to Iranian route? Chabahar-Milak-Zaranj-Dilaram route from Iran to Afghanistan? Is Zaranj Taliban country, Do we need the route to go further north through Iran and into North of Afghanistan for better protection. We need a route to send major military packages to the Afghan military.
Training a few soldiers though valuable in India (we were already doing that), is not going to make a significant impact. I presume Indians will be setting up bases in the North of Afghanistan now, and slowly moving south.

We need to make Afghans defend themselves adequately on their borders with Pakistan, within 5 years; We should be able to open up pressure on Pakistan's eastern border accordingly.

 

[Ray]

Brigadier,

Are we going to use the Central Asian route or Iranian route? That is the golden question, is DM in Tajikistan and Russia for the same? If so, what is happening to Iranian route? Chabahar-Milak-Zaranj-Dilaram route from Iran to Afghanistan? Is Zaranj Taliban country, Do we need the route to go further north through Iran and into North of Afghanistan for better protection. We need a route to send major military packages to the Afghan military.
Training a few soldiers though valuable in India (we were already doing that), is not going to make a significant impact. I presume Indians will be setting up bases in the North of Afghanistan now, and slowly moving south.

We need to make Afghans defend themselves adequately on their borders with Pakistan, within 5 years; We should be able to open up pressure on Pakistan's eastern border accordingly.

since when has idealism become the engine for foreign policy?

Check the road alignment.

We are not training their rank and file in the way we could.

To be able to train Afghans to be able to replicate India on the borders given the timeframe suggested and the tribal and social complexities would require Merlin to be here to wave the magic wand.

Are you aware how long it is required to train a basic soldier and not long it takes to make him a combat reactive soldier?

This is my rifle and this is my gun take a long time to realise which is the rifle and which is the gun!

Check your own map. Do you think that the DM stopped in Tajikistan to wet his parched throat?

India does not have long haul aircraft for the DM?

And why should the Tajik DM scamper out of his Parliament session to give a red carpet reception for the Indian DM? The bugs on his seat was making his life miserable?

 

[Adux]

since when has idealism become the engine for foreign policy?

I dont get your point?

Indians will have to avoid the below areas, so will have to their supply routes, if they are taking the Iran route, therefore Zanjar is not an option.

 

[Ray]

I cannot comment on the map.

However, the person heading the construction of the road had a different story to tell me.

The 200 kms odd highway was made, and in what time and what was the casualties?

If it were made without any ISAF presence, in the time that it was made, I think that tells an interesting story!

How many ITBP were protecting them?

That should give you the reality.

Though in a different context, I am sure you know the story of Blackhawk Down!!

The Indian contingent in Somalia was looking after the worst area and yet they came out smelling of roses!

Attitudes are different and the Indian approach is different.

 

[Adux]

What did story did he have to tell you?

 

[Ray]

Attitudes are different and Indian approach is different and it works.

The details I obviously cannot divulge.

Check each UN mission and see why Indians succeed where angels fear to tread.

Should give you an idea.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India-Afghanistan Troop-Training Pact May Increase Tensions With Pakistan - Bloomberg

India-Afghanistan Troop-Training Pact May Increase Tensions With Pakistan

India and Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership agreement that officials of their governments say will allow for Indian training of Afghan troops in coming years, a step that may exacerbate the two countries' tensions with Pakistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed the accord yesterday in New Delhi, a day after Karzai accused Pakistan in a televised speech of foiling his attempts to make peace with Taliban insurgents by secretly backing their war effort. The agreement is not directed at Pakistan, Karzai said today, without giving details on the type or scale of training being discussed.

After years in which Karzai kept India at arm's length on security issues, his willingness to seek military training "is a joint message he and the Americans are sending to Pakistan that, if you don't come on board and stop supporting these guerrillas, we have an option to strengthen ties with India," Amin Saikal, an Afghan political scientist at Australian National University, said yesterday in a phone interview.

Saikal and other analysts say the growing strains are part of an "end-game" in which Pakistan is seeking to keep or increase its influence in Afghanistan as the U.S. tries to reduce its commitment to the decade-long war, the longest-ever conflict for the U.S. military. While India has drawn closer to Afghanistan with promises of new aid and an offer to invest billions of dollars in mining a large iron deposit, Pakistani leaders have traded top-level visits with China's leaders, seeking closer ties.

Proxy Forces

As President Barack Obama tries to withdraw the bulk of America's 98,000 troops in Afghanistan within three years, the U.S. and Karzai have publicly increased pressure on Pakistan to end what they and independent analysts say is its policy of quietly backing the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's army for years has denied reports by scholars -- and last month by the top U.S. military commander -- that it supports Islamic guerrillas as proxy forces for attacks on Afghanistan and India. Pakistan has fought three wars with India and its officials say the army would regard any Indian security presence in Afghanistan as a threat to Pakistan.

While "Pakistan won't object to any Indian role in helping the development" of Afghanistan, "any military or intelligence role for India will not be tolerable for Pakistan," Pakistani foreign policy analyst and former ambassador Maleeha Lodi said in an interview in July. Pakistan's security policies are set by its politically powerful army, which Lodi said retains "its desire to prevent any kind of strategic encirclement" through an Indian-Afghan security relationship.

Embassy Attack

The new Indian-Afghan agreement largely enshrines joint projects already underway, Karzai said today in a speech sponsored by a New Delhi think tank, the Observer Research Foundation. It envisions Indian help "to train our police for us, to train our army for us, to train thousands of Afghan youth who are right now studying in India," he said.

While U.S.-led forces currently train Afghan troops, their main combat force is scheduled to withdraw by 2014.
Strains between Pakistan and both Karzai's government and the U.S. have increased following guerrilla attacks in the Afghan capital last month that officials in Kabul and Washington say were sponsored by Pakistan. On Sept. 13, Taliban fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades into the U.S. Embassy compound, and a week later a suicide bomber killed Karzai's chief envoy for talks with the Taliban, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Iron Deposit

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said before retiring at the end of September that Pakistan's main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, for years has supported "proxy terrorist organizations," including the Haqqani guerrillas and Lashkar-e- Taiba.
Karzai's office said last week it has proof that Pakistan-based Taliban sent the bomber that killed Rabbani. Pakistan denied both accusations and last week summoned a conference of all political parties to denounce them.

As the U.S. and Afghan tensions with Pakistan have grown this year, India's Singh visited in May to offer an additional $500 million in development aid, following more than $1 billion it has spent since 2002.

India's government encouraged a group of its steel and mining companies to bid for the estimated 1.8 billion metric tons of ore at Hajigak, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Kabul. The tender is the biggest on offer in a country that the U.S. government estimated last year holds $1 trillion in untapped minerals.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eltaf Najafizada in Kabul at [email protected]; James Rupert in New Delhi at [email protected]

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Pakistan appears more isolated after India-Afghan pact | Top News | Reuters

Pakistan appears more isolated after India-Afghan pact

 

[LETHALFORCE]

With Afghanistan, India marks its rise in Central Asia | Firstpost

With Afghanistan, India marks its rise in Central Asia

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Agreement on Strategic Partnership between India and Afghanistan | NetIndian

Text of the Agreement on Strategic Partnership between India and Afghanistan


The following is the text of the Agreement on Strategic Partnership between India and Afghanistan signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai here today:

October 04, 2011

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Republic of India, hereinafter referred to as "the Sides",

RECOGNISING the time-tested and friendly relationship between the two countries, underpinned by historical and cultural ties;

EMPHASISING the fundamental and lasting importance of the Treaty of Friendship between the Government of India and the Royal Government of Afghanistan of 4 January 1950, and subsequent Agreements and Joint Statements;

PROCEEDING from a desire to further strengthen their traditional and historical ties to mutual benefit;

DRAWING upon their rich and fruitful tradition of cooperation in various fields since the establishment of their diplomatic relations;

CONVINCED that the further comprehensive development of their bilateral ties would promote progress and prosperity in both states and the region as a whole;

APPRECIATING the significant expansion of bilateral ties between the two countries and, in this context, the sincere and generous assistance that the Republic of India has provided to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan over the past ten years;

SEEKING to impart a long term commitment to their multifaceted bilateral relations and to actively develop them in political, development, economic, trade, scientific, technological, cultural and other fields in the years ahead;

CONFIRMING their adherence to the common ideals of peace, democracy, rule of law, non-violence, human rights and fundamental freedoms;

REAFFIRMING their commitment to international law, including to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter;

Hereby proclaim the establishment of relations of Strategic Partnership, as laid out in the following paragraphs:
GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1. This Agreement, based on mutual understanding and long term trust between the Sides, envisages the elevation of the multifaceted ties between the two countries to higher levels, both in the bilateral field and in the international arena.

2. The Strategic Partnership between the Sides is based upon the principles of sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity of States, non-interference in their internal affairs, mutual respect and mutual benefit.

3. The Strategic Partnership between the Sides is not directed against any other State or group of States.

POLITICAL & SECURITY COOPERATION

1. The Sides agree to engage in close political cooperation and, in this respect, establish a mechanism for regular bilateral political and Foreign Office Consultations. Political consultations will be led by Foreign Ministries of both countries and include summit level consultations convened at least once a year.

2. The Sides agree to consult and cooperate at the United Nations and other international, regional and multilateral fora. Such cooperation is to be aimed at influencing decision-making in these fora in the interest of both countries. Cooperation at the UN and multilateral fora would include:

(a) Joint initiatives on key regional and international issues;
(b) Support for the reform and expansion of the United Nations Security Council, including a permanent seat for India in the Council.

3. The Sides agree to establish a Strategic Dialogue to provide a framework for cooperation in the area of national security. The Dialogue will be led by NSAs and involve regular consultations with the aim of intensifying mutual efforts towards strengthening regional peace and security.

4. Security cooperation between the Sides is intended to help enhance their respective and mutual efforts in the fight against international terrorism, organized crime, illegal trafficking in narcotics, money laundering and so on.

5. India agrees to assist, as mutually determined, in the training, equipping and capacity building programmes for Afghan National Security Forces.
TRADE & ECONOMIC COOPERATION

1. The Sides commit to strengthening trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation, as well as cooperation between other bodies of business and industry representatives, with a view to expanding trade and economic relations.

2. In the interest of Afghanistan's sustainable development, and furthering economic interdependence between the two countries, the Sides commit to deepening and diversifying cooperation in sectors such as agriculture, rural development, mining, industry, energy, information technology, communications, transport, including civil aviation, and any other areas that the Sides may agree on.

3. The Sides agree to take effective measures to create a favourable environment to promote trade and investment. The measures shall include, among others:

(a) Enhancing investment protection;
(b) Simplifying customs and other procedures and promoting the removal of non-tariff barriers, and gradually lowering tariff barriers;
(c) Working towards the creation of air-cargo facilities for promotion of commercial exchanges;
(d) Cooperating in the areas of banking and finance, and improving credit and insurance facilities and;
(e) Enhancing cooperation and coordination at international trade, economic and financial bodies.

4. To achieve a sustained expansion of bilateral trade and economic ties with a long term perspective, the Sides will establish effective mechanisms for interaction between Indian and Afghan entities. Specific measures will include:

(a) Encouraging contacts between regions/provinces in both countries with a view to promoting trade, economic and cultural cooperation;
(b) Mandating the relevant bodies of both countries to jointly explore the possibilities of regional trading arrangements with third countries;
(c) Further enhancing the quality and international competitiveness of their goods by promoting cooperation between the institutions of quality assurance and standardization, and on new technologies; and
(d) Encouraging greater cooperation between the Chambers of Commerce and Industries of both countries.

5. Recognizing that regional economic cooperation is vital to the future economic prosperity of individual nations, the Sides agree to cooperate, both bilaterally and through regional organizations in promoting regional economic cooperation. Regional economic cooperation shall:
(a) Envisage assisting Afghanistan emerge as a trade, transportation and energy hub connecting Central and South Asia and enabling free and more unfettered transport and transit linkages;
(b) Focus on development of regional infrastructure projects;
(c) Help facilitate the integration of the Afghan economy within the South Asian and global economies by opening markets for Afghan and Indian products for mutual benefit; and
(d) Strengthen regional cooperation under SAARC, of which both sides are members.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION

1. In the interest of Afghanistan's long-term, sustainable development, and building on the existing generous aid programme offered by India to Afghanistan, India commits to continue its assistance to the development and capacity building efforts in Afghanistan.

(a) Cooperation will, among other areas of focus, concentrate on the agriculture, mining and health sectors, reflecting Afghanistan's priorities; and
(b) India further commits to expand ongoing Small Development Projects (SDPs) for grass-root level development in the remote and rural areas.

2. The Sides agree to establish institutional linkages between their respective governments by encouraging cooperation between Ministries/agencies of the two sides. India offers the experience of its own institutional, administrative, political and economic systems as references that Afghanistan can study and benefit from in the light of its own needs and realities.


3. As part of its highly successful annual scholarship programme, and the broader strategy of support to higher education for Afghanistan, India will continue to expand education and training opportunities in India through the ICCR and ITEC scholarships, and multilateral-funded programmes.

(a) Responding to the requirements of Afghanistan, India will explore avenues to expand scholarships in medical, engineering and management institutes of India; and
(b) The Sides will also encourage and facilitate annual student exchange programmes at the school and university levels.

4. As part of its capacity building support for the Afghan government, India will continue and expand technical, training and other capacity building support to the various departments in the three branches of government, including the Executive, Judiciary and the Parliament.

5. In response to Afghanistan's need to strengthen its administration and governance at national and sub-national levels, India offers its experience of governance at the national, state, district and local body levels, and technical assistance in setting up a permanent, career-based civil service suitable for Afghan realities.

SOCIAL, CULTURAL, CIVIL SOCIETY & PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE RELATIONS

1. In pursuit of further expanding the existing people-to-people bonds that exist between the two countries, the Sides envisage greater exchanges between parliament, media, women, youth, sports, academic, cultural, intellectual and religious figures and bodies.

2. Through the India-Afghanistan Foundation, the Sides will seek to promote social and cultural ties, with a focus on arts, literature, poetry and so on, and further expand the exposure to each others' cultural heritage and achievements.

3. The Sides will encourage and promote greater exchanges between media organizations in their respective countries, within the framework of an independent and free media.

4. Both Sides will work for the upliftment of women, their education and rights, and also for the poorer or weaker sections of their societies.

5. To encourage and expand interaction and legitimate movement of people between the two countries, the Sides agree to simplifying rules and procedures for travel by citizens of both countries. The Sides intend to:
(a) Promote tourist exchanges and cooperation between tourist organizations in both countries; and
(b) Encourage sister-city agreements between the cities/provinces/states of the two countries.

6. To facilitate legal cases involving nationals of one country in the other, the Sides will work towards agreements on mutual legal assistance in civil and criminal matters.

7. To promote relations between civil societies and, in particular, enable intellectual exchanges, the Sides intend to establish India-Afghanistan Round Table consisting of eminent persons representing different fields.

8. Both Sides agree to promote cooperation and exchanges in the field of sports.

9. Both sides agree to share and learn from each others' experience of the values and institutions of democracy, including the sharing, distribution and devolution of powers, relations between the Centre and States/Provinces, electoral reforms etc.

10. The Sides agree to establish parliament-to-parliament exchanges between the two countries by organizing visits of parliamentary delegations and establishing parliamentary friendship groups in the two countries.

IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISM

1. This Strategic Partnership would be implemented under the framework of a Partnership Council, which will be headed by the Foreign Ministers of both countries. The Council will convene annual meetings.

2. The Council will consist of separate Joint Working Groups on Political & Security Consultations, Trade and Economic Cooperation, Capacity Development & Education, and Social, Cultural and Civil Society, involving high level representatives from concerned Ministries/Authorities.

3. The existing dialogue mechanisms between the two sides will become part of the Council.

CONCLUSION

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Republic of India go forward in this partnership, re-asserting the fundamental and lasting spirit of the Treaty of Friendship between the Government of India and the Royal Government of Afghanistan of 04 January 1950, which states: "There shall be everlasting peace and friendship between the two Governments who will further strive to maintain and strengthen the cordial relations existing between the people of their respective countries."

Signed on the 4th October 2011 at New Delhi in four originals, each in Hindi, Pashto, Dari and English languages. However, in case of any discrepancy in the text or difference in interpretation, the English text shall prevail.

(Manmohan Singh) (Hamid Karzai)

Prime Minister President

of the Republic of India of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

 

[thakur_ritesh]

Check your own map. Do you think that the DM stopped in Tajikistan to wet his parched throat?

India does not have long haul aircraft for the DM?

And why should the Tajik DM scamper out of his Parliament session to give a red carpet reception for the Indian DM? The bugs on his seat was making his life miserable?

Sir,

dont want to take any credit, but this is precisely the thought that crossed my mind as well.

the thought of technical snag creeping up, taking enough time to get rectified that a working lunch could be adjusted, the tajik DM giving a traditional red carpet welcome, certainly dont make for an accident but something that was put to plan earlier.

Adux,

from what i have read, and please dont ask me to source that article now since i wont be able to, indians did cut a few deals with the local taliban at the time of making of those roads, takes me to another article which highlighted that the indian contractors were hiring pakistanis and putting them in security, if true, that says a lot on all that is happening on ground.

are we at some level engaging taliban who surrendered and have some sort of an influence back with taliban, if it is so happening, i wont at all be surprised, in fact i am pretty sure something to that effect could be under work.

as far as mining is concerned indian businesses will transit through the taliban areas and if the above is true we can be rest assured they will do the deals with the taliban and seriously if these chaps in india in the maoist dominated areas can do it with the maoists, there will be no one to stop them in 'astan from doing the same with taliban and if i get it right, when ray sir points to idealism and foreign policy, he talks about the above, sir please correct me if i am wrong.

the training bit i still suspect will be low key, at most a team of trainers will be shipped across if they are not already and it seems we would be at some level engaging the afgan army and police at some level in a'stan directly and what has been put on paper is either formalization of what was happening for long or just putting a step ahead, i think its more about documenting it.

what would be of interest to know is what happened beyond the unwritten and the unspoken stuff. they are not terming it as strategic just for those three things that were anyways happening for long and the people in the know already knew what was happening, though largely kept under the wraps from public glare and with documentation we are just coming in the front with all that was happening, it has to be lot more.

also from what i can make out this has nothing to do with the rabbani assassination or with the growing tensions of a'stan with p'stan because the karzai visit was planned prior to that assassination and just a point scoring and putting in a word like strategic to do the above would be pretty amateurish.

 

[Galaxy]

Afghanistan Favors India and Denigrates Pakistan

Afghanistan Favors India and Denigrates Pakistan


KABUL, Afghanistan — Fuming over what they have called the Pakistani role in exporting terrorism across the border, Afghan officials signaled on Tuesday that they had little interest, for now, in healing a rift with Pakistan, their eastern neighbor.

Two developments set the tone: In New Delhi, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan signed a wide-ranging strategic partnership with India, which Pakistan regards as its principal adversary. Mr. Karzai's visit also underscored the growing economic and security ties between India and Afghanistan.

And here in Kabul, intelligence officials investigating the assassination of the head of Afghanistan's peace process said that Pakistan was refusing to cooperate with their inquiry and that it had failed to crack down on Taliban leaders who, the Afghans say, planned the killing from inside Pakistan.

The moves were all but certain to draw further ire from Pakistan.

The strategic agreement signed Tuesday by Mr. Karzai and the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, had been in the making for more than five months.

Perhaps most provocatively for the Pakistanis, it paves the way for India to train and equip Afghan security forces to fill what the Afghanistan government fears will be critical gaps as NATO troops leave in the years ahead. Pakistan and India, nuclear-armed neighbors, have long suspected each other's motives in Afghanistan.

There is evidence that Pakistan's spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, has used militant groups as proxy fighters in Afghanistan, and may have been behind the bombing of the Indian Embassy here in 2009. Pakistan has denied such accusations. But it has questioned why India opened consulates in Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Jalalabad in addition to its embassy in Kabul, suggesting that they are surveillance posts.

Over the past 10 years India has spent nearly $2 billion in aid to Afghanistan, mainly on reconstruction, road building, health clinics and an array of small development projects. India also runs a scholarship program for Afghan students, not unlike the American Fulbright program.

Wealthy Afghans often travel to India for medical treatment. The number of flights weekly from Kabul, the Afghan capital, to New Delhi has risen steadily over the past several years as young professionals journey there for training programs and trade.

Although Mr. Karzai's trip had long been scheduled in advance, it fell at a particularly strained moment for relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, coming two weeks after a suicide bomber assassinated the head of the Afghan High Peace Council, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani.

His killing threw the peace process into disarray and stirred tirades against Pakistan, as officials in Parliament and Afghans in the streets of the capital accused their neighbor of fostering insurgent groups suspected of orchestrating the assassination.

Just a week before Mr. Rabbani was killed, militants from the Pakistan-based Haqqani network conducted a brazen attack against the American Embassy in Kabul, transforming the capital into a battle zone for 20 hours. Adm. Mike Mullen, the just-departed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pakistan's spy agency had supported the attack.

Afghan investigators say the plot to kill Mr. Rabbani was hatched in the Pakistani border town of Quetta, a stronghold of the Taliban leadership. Some Afghan officials have publicly accused Pakistan's spy agency of complicity in the killing — charges that Pakistan has rejected as baseless. On Tuesday, intelligence officials in Kabul jabbed yet another accusatory finger toward Pakistan. They said Pakistani officials had scuttled a meeting to discuss Mr. Rabbani's assassination and would not cooperate in the investigation.

At a news conference, intelligence officials showed satellite images of Quetta, highlighting three houses with yellow circles. Those, officials said, were the homes of so-called shadow governors of the Taliban and other officials whom Pakistani security forces had not arrested.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry did not respond to the latest complaints, but in a statement released a day earlier, the ministry cast doubt on "the so-called evidence" tying Pakistan's spy agency to Mr. Rabbani's killing.

"Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani was a great friend of Pakistan and widely respected in this country," the statement said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/w...-with-india-and-denigrates-pakistan.html?_r=2

 

[Galaxy]

US thinking post-2014 in Afghan bases talks

US thinking post-2014 in Afghan bases talks


Boasting everything from a Pizza Hut to a massage parlour, Bagram Airfield is one of the giant military bases in Afghanistan at the centre of a fierce debate over the US presence after troops withdraw.

A decade after the war started on October 7, 2001, Washington has vowed to pull all combat forces out by the end of 2014 but is locked in tricky negotiations with Kabul over a strategic partnership beyond this date.

While the US insists it does not want permanent bases in Afghanistan, some Afghans are suspicious of its motives and believe it is putting down long-term roots at bases like Bagram, home to 30,000 troops and contractors.

Others, though, say a strong US presence beyond 2014 is vital to support the fragile, war-torn country in years to come.

"If they want to have military bases, it will do nothing for us," said Abdul Jamil Tanha, a 20-year-old student in Kabul.

"Instead, attacks will increase in our country. As a result, innocent Afghans get killed and they will suffer, not the foreigners."

Negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan on the strategic partnership started in February but seem to have hit a hurdle.

Speaking to a private meeting in Kabul recently, President Hamid Karzai said the talks were now at a very sensitive stage.

He said the US was currently rejecting five key Afghan demands -- US troops operating within Afghanistan's legal framework; the suspension of all unilateral foreign military operations; the suspension of foreign forces taking prisoners and the closure of all foreign-run prisons; what he deemed sufficient funding for the Afghan security forces and channelling all foreign funding through the Afghan government.

Asked if there was a risk that the US would lose interest in his country, Karzai said: "No, don't you worry about that. They won't leave Afghanistan."

Comment from the US side has been more measured.

US ambassador to Kabul Ryan Crocker said last month that the two sides were "in a negotiation and in a negotiation, each side asks for the world and then we compromise somewhere in the middle."

A US defence official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue said arrangements post-2014 would probably involve "shared facilities."

He added that the US would likely look to help Afghan security forces with intelligence sharing, air power and logistics beyond 2014.

Another US administration official said that the US and Afghanistan had a "shared understanding of the broad outlines of this proposal" but stumbling blocks remained, including the extent of US support for Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan's army and police are rapidly increasing in size ahead of the 2014 drawdown, when they will take control of security across the country.


They are due to total 352,000 by November next year, from 190,000 in late 2009, as part of a training mission whose budget is $11.6 billion this year alone.

One point of comparison for the future of US troops in Afghanistan could be Iraq, where US combat operations ended last year but 43,500 troops remain in training and advisory roles.

The agreements governing the US-Iraqi relationship, which also stress that the US does not seek permanent bases, were part brokered by Crocker.

Despite the hitches, many Afghans want a long-term partnership with the US, partly as a bulwark against Afghanistan's historically problematic relationship with neighbours such as Pakistan, accused by Karzai and others of supporting the Taliban-led insurgency.

"Having a longer-term strategic partnership with the United States and with the world will help Afghanistan because we have not a good experience with being influenced by our neighbouring countries," said Fawzia Kufi, a prominent female Afghan lawmaker.

"The people of Afghanistan are fed up with those influences so we want to have a stronger partnership with the world."

Afghanistan's neighbours are wary of a deal, most importantly Pakistan, which is split on the prospect of a longer-term US presence.

"They're here to stay. It's sort of a Catch-22," a Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
While there would be no peace until the US left Afghanistan, "we feel if they up and leave now, Afghanistan will erupt into civil war so we don't want them to leave" until Afghanistan has a government acceptable to all ethnicities, he added. Pakistan believes this would bring greater stability.

Although Afghan efforts to make peace with the Taliban are now up in the air after the assassination of peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, a deal on the long-term US presence in Afghanistan will also have implications for any future negotiations.

"Without the prospect of... an enduring American presence, the Taliban would have little incentive to negotiate rather than just wait the United States and NATO out," a recent study from US think-tank the RAND Corporation said.

"On the other hand, American and Afghan officials should also be making clear... that any such accord between Kabul and Washington is subject to amendment, depending on the outcome of a peace process."

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force says the fate of Bagram plus the handful of other foreign bases in Afghanistan the size of an American town is not clear.

But Bagram's extensive facilities plus construction of new roads and accommodation suggest it is unlikely to be closed down anytime soon.

US thinking post-2014 in Afghan bases talks - Yahoo! News

 

[Galaxy]

[h=1]Pakistan appears more isolated after India-Afghan pact[/h]

 

[utubekhiladi]

ADMINS/MOD Please ban me if you want to but i cannot control my joy on this news and resist from saying....

SCREW YOU PAKISTAN.....​

hahahaahha hahahhaha hahahahah hahahaha

 

[Yusuf]

????

 

[Adux]

Ritesh,

If we go further up the Iranian territory, instead of joining up in Zanjar, lets join up in Mazar i Sharif, which would make us avoid Taliban country all together. Anyways interesting news, and that is how it should be, dirty. Pakistan should get really fucked.

 

[Anshu Attri]

अफगान फौज को ट्रेनिंग देगा भारत

 

[thakur_ritesh]

all off topic posts moved - http://defenceforumindia.com/asia-pacific-middle-east-defence/6588-afghanistan-news-discussions.html

 

[Galaxy]

Pakistan squeezed by Afghan-India pact

Pakistan squeezed by Afghan-India pact

By Nasir Jaffry (AFP) – 7 hours ago

ISLAMABAD — The new Afghan-Indian security pact could inflame Pakistan's proxy war against India and threatens Islamabad's regional ambitions in South Asia as its ties with Kabul and Washington hit rock bottom.

Pakistan has been on the defensive as Afghanistan has cosied up to India. Kabul claims the recent murder of its peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani was plotted in Pakistan, and has accused Islamabad of hindering the investigation.

Pakistan has been terse about the burgeoning India-Afghanistan alliance. "Both are sovereign countries and they have the right to do whatever they want to," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in brief response.

But the alliance undermines Pakistan's policy of courting Afghanistan to offset the regional superpower status of India, with which it has fought three wars since independence in 1947, including two over Kashmir.

Fearful of encirclement by its wealthier neighbour, Pakistan has long focussed on Afghanistan -- arming Islamist warlords against the Soviets in the 1980s, backing the Taliban in the 1990s and hedging its bets in the 2000s.

But the new strategic partnership sealed Tuesday, which will see India take a bigger role in training Afghan security forces after already dishing out more than $2 billion in aid, threatens to isolate Pakistan further.

Right-wing newspaper The Nation said the "very disturbing" pact would "create further misunderstandings" that would help neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan "if he (Karzai) wants his country to progress and prosper".

Pakistani military affairs analyst Ayesha Siddiqa went further.
"This pact will definitely lead to a more intense proxy war between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan, because India will be training the Afghan military and Pakistan does not consider this in its interest," she told AFP.

When US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan formally sided with the United States, but has been long accused of playing a double game with its old warlord and Taliban friends.

Those accusations reached fever pitch after the US embassy in Kabul was subject to a 19-hour siege on September 13 and Rabbani was assassinated on September 20.
Those incidents came after the US killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on the doorstep of Pakistan's top military academy in May.

The United States launched a concerted campaign last month, accusing Pakistani intelligence of involvement in the embassy attack and demanding the state cut all ties with the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban faction.

And although Prime Minister Gilani declared a "victory" in facing down US pressure on the Haqqanis, officials behind the scenes paint a less rosy picture of relations.

"Every time I think we've hit rock bottom, I find both countries have shovel in their hand and are digging further down trying to find a new bottom," one Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

US options for action are limited. Pakistan, which says nearly half the US war effort in Afghanistan is routed through its territory, stonewalled the Haqqani accusations and last week the pressure began to ease off.

Some say Karzai's visit to India was an opportunity to take up where the United States had left off with its accusations -- and strike a chord in India, which blamed the horrific 2008 Mumbai attacks on Pakistani militants.

Yet despite the distrust, Kabul recognises that there can be no resolution to the 10-year Afghan conflict without at least acquiescence from Islamabad.

Karzai on Wednesday sought to ease Pakistan's discomfort, describing it as Afghanistan's "twin brother" -- although "brother" is also a word he uses for the Taliban -- and India as a "great friend".

Nevertheless, analysts say, the Kabul-Delhi partnership may force Pakistan into reappraising its approach to militancy.

"There has to be less obvious support for insurgents in order to prevent much obvious isolation," said A.H. Nayyar, a physics professor and political analyst at Lahore University of Management Sciences.

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