China the key to India's Afghan puzzle
By Prathapan Bhaskaran
China may be the key factor that India needs to balance what bill become an increasingly difficult Afghan equation after the planned US exit in 2014.
Pakistan is the common denominator for both China and India in the emerging geopolitical calculus and Beijing has vast influence over Islamabad as its acknowledged "all-weather ally".
To salvage its massive investments in Afghanistan, New Delhi's main hope, apart from putting a large number of its own troops on ground, is coaxing Beijing to use its considerable clout with Islamabad.
Islamabad's military intelligence controls major Taliban elements, which are housed along its border and continue to launch targeted attacks inside Afghanistan.
Both China and India have a huge stake in an Afghanistan dispensation in which extremist Taliban elements do not wield undue influence.
New Delhi has reasons to worry about a nightmarish security scenario that could emerge after US-led coalition forces leave war-ravaged Afghanistan – a country they occupied following the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on US soil, planned and executed by Osama bin Laden, who was living under the protection of Afghanistan's then Taliban regime. Taliban elements have been tormenting Indian interests with targeted bomb blasts despite the US security cover.
Though India and Afghanistan do not share a border, New Delhi has pledged about $2 billion aid for funding the development of transportation infrastructure and health care facilities in the country of 30 million people since 2006.
Asia Times Online :: China the key to India's Afghan puzzle
By Prathapan Bhaskaran
China may be the key factor that India needs to balance what bill become an increasingly difficult Afghan equation after the planned US exit in 2014.
Pakistan is the common denominator for both China and India in the emerging geopolitical calculus and Beijing has vast influence over Islamabad as its acknowledged "all-weather ally".
To salvage its massive investments in Afghanistan, New Delhi's main hope, apart from putting a large number of its own troops on ground, is coaxing Beijing to use its considerable clout with Islamabad.
Islamabad's military intelligence controls major Taliban elements, which are housed along its border and continue to launch targeted attacks inside Afghanistan.
Both China and India have a huge stake in an Afghanistan dispensation in which extremist Taliban elements do not wield undue influence.
New Delhi has reasons to worry about a nightmarish security scenario that could emerge after US-led coalition forces leave war-ravaged Afghanistan – a country they occupied following the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on US soil, planned and executed by Osama bin Laden, who was living under the protection of Afghanistan's then Taliban regime. Taliban elements have been tormenting Indian interests with targeted bomb blasts despite the US security cover.
Though India and Afghanistan do not share a border, New Delhi has pledged about $2 billion aid for funding the development of transportation infrastructure and health care facilities in the country of 30 million people since 2006.
Asia Times Online :: China the key to India's Afghan puzzle
