Heavy Indian Investment in Afghanistan.

[amitkriit]

Afghans will be the greatest beneficiaries whenever you point to them if Pakistan plunders their wealth. What I said earlier was a general comment about mining companies in relatively less educated third world countries lacking technical knowledge in common so that many in the society could know the meanings of being cheated when the foreigners are actually telling them about the benefits of the enterprise. If you are worried, I might sense trouble for Afghans.

Please do not consider me in anyway enemy of India, I am a friend. But I do not like poor people anywhere to be cheated out of their wealth even by my own country.

Why do you think despite being resource rich one of the major exports of Afghanistan was "narcotics"? That was because Afghanistan was unable to exploit it's natural resources.

If India doesn't get the contract, some other actor will get it. Doesn't change the ground reality even by a bit. But yes, Afghan government is responsible for placing important safe-guards like any other country. Afghanistan cannot do anything with it's natural resources without attracting investment, those resources will just keep sitting there. You are equating a foreign company getting mining contract to "exploitation", and there lies my disagreement with you. Going by that logic recently the Russian government showed willingness to allocate few exploration blocks to Indian oil/gas company, will that amount to exploitation of Russians at the hands of Indians?

 

[AhsanAmin]

If India doesn't get the contract, some other actor will get it. Doesn't change the ground reality even by a bit. But yes, Afghan government is responsible for placing important safe-guards like any other country. Afghanistan cannot do anything with it's natural resources without attracting investment, those resources will just keep sitting there. You are equating a foreign company getting mining contract to "exploitation", and there lies my disagreement with you. Going by that logic recently the Russian government showed willingness to allocate few exploration blocks to Indian oil/gas company, will that amount to exploitation of Russians at the hands of Indians?

I did not equate anything of the sort you mentioned here. I would truly love an Indian mining company to explore minerals in Afghanistan and make fair returns on their investments but I would not like any profits of monumental nature because that would be unfair to poor Afghans who bitterly need money to build their country. And I would like Afghans to make sure they write the contract properly. And good Indians should also like it.

I do not know any details of Indian contracts and I really do not know if they followed fair practices in this regard. My comment was of very general nature related to mining companies.

 

[my2cents]

I did not equate anything of the sort you mentioned here. I would truly love an Indian mining company to explore minerals in Afghanistan and make fair returns on their investments but I would not like any profits of monumental nature because that would be unfair to poor Afghans who bitterly need money to build their country. And I would like Afghans to make sure they write the contract properly. And good Indians should also like it.

I do not know any details of Indian contracts and I really do not know if they followed fair practices in this regard. My comment was of very general nature related to mining companies.

You should follow your advice in your own backyard i.e. Baluchistan. That region remains backward even though it is resource rich.

 

[qamar1990]

the greedy minds of india r focusing on mining construction security n intelligence sides in afghanistan
i dont what pakistan is doing in there siting like an idle n waiting for a miracle


r u living in a fools paradise

are you a khalistani? lol

 

[Guynextdoor2]

Stability in Afghanistan is in interest of all. Otherwise most affected nations will be whose borders are the most weak. AKA Pakistan.

I thnk the problem is something else. I think if the issue is 'stability' India and Pak can easily come to a workable deal in Afghanistan. It's just that some of your generals are so used to the idea of Afg being your 'backyard', they want too much control over the affairs there. That inevitably creates conflicts in areas likehow to work with the Taleban etc.

are you a khalistani? lol

It is possible to 'become' one quite quickly even if you aren't

I did not equate anything of the sort you mentioned here. I would truly love an Indian mining company to explore minerals in Afghanistan and make fair returns on their investments but I would not like any profits of monumental nature because that would be unfair to poor Afghans who bitterly need money to build their country. And I would like Afghans to make sure they write the contract properly. And good Indians should also like it.

I do not know any details of Indian contracts and I really do not know if they followed fair practices in this regard. My comment was of very general nature related to mining companies.

Dude, don't afghan's have a govt of their own? How are you so convinced that Indian companies will be 'exploitative'? Tatas etc. have never had that allegation.

 

[AhsanAmin]

Dude, don't afghan's have a govt of their own? How are you so convinced that Indian companies will be 'exploitative'? Tatas etc. have never had that allegation.

I do not know but may be you are not aware of problems in many of these places. Money usually goes to sardars or "chiefs of clans/tribes" and other influential people and this darkens the future of the nations. Of course Sardars can enjoy a beautiful life abroad. If you believe in TATA that much, I am happy and hope they(TATA) do not let you down. I do not know that well about ethics of TATA but I do want to be able to share your emotion in general.

 

[Levina]

I do not know but may be you are not aware of problems in many of these places. Money usually goes to sardars or "chiefs of clans/tribes" and other influential people and this darkens the future of the nations. Of course Sardars can enjoy a beautiful life abroad. If you believe in TATA that much, I am happy and hope they(TATA) do not let you down. I do not know that well about ethics of TATA but I do want to be able to share your emotion in general.

The thing is Karzai is more than keen on Indian investments in Afghanistan.I remember him stressing on the fact during his visit to india that "nano will be in demand in Afghanistan and that TATA should invest in Afghanistan" .Both India and Afghanistan see the bilateral security agreement as important for the stability of Afghanistan.

 

[AhsanAmin]

The thing is Karzai is more than keen on Indian investments in Afghanistan.I remember him stressing on the fact during his visit to india that "nano will be in demand in Afghanistan and that TATA should invest in Afghanistan" .Both India and Afghanistan see the bilateral security agreement as important for the stability of Afghanistan.

I would also strongly welcome if TATA invests in anything related to manufacturing in Afghanistan. Again since I am not an Indian, my knowledge of TATA is relatively less, but my comments were about mining companies in general and I would want TATA to be an exception and set an "Indian standard" abroad. Nature of manufacturing plants is usually different from the nature of mining enterprises.

As far as any bilateral security agreement is concerned, I would say that both India and Afghanistan should take Pakistan's reservations into account. I do not like any idea of strategic depth against India but in a similar spirit, I do not want any agreement to corner my country in any way. It will help those people looking for strategic depth against India and there will be problems for both Afghans and Pakistan due to resulting "cold war", and India has much less to lose since it has no borders next to Afghanistan. So it is probably better to look for stability of Afghanistan honestly and all the countries in the region should strive for this goal together.