The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | India ends Kabul drift with multiple steps
Washington, May 13: New Delhi is finally embarking on a course in Kabul that will have a significant impact on Indias domestic security, ending several years of fumbling and drift in Indias policy on Afghanistan.
Aiding in the evolution of such a policy is the clarity which has emerged from Afghanistan President Hamid Karzais visit to Washington, that is concluding today.
Unusual for a superpower, in the run-up to Karzais arrival here, US President Barack Obama changed course on his approach to Karzai and accepted the Afghan leader as Washingtons partner by seizing personal control of Americas Kabul policy which has been pulling in opposite directions since Obama came into office last January.
Even as Karzai heads home after his productive Washington visit, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna will be taking a plane to Tehran for talks with the Iranian leadership. The talks are expected to end a long hiatus in New Delhi-Tehran ties, which had become a one-way traffic route with only the Iranians using the road of Indo-Iranian friendship.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao prepared the ground for Krishnas visit by travelling to Tehran ostensibly for foreign office consultations, but in reality to get a feel for re-energizing relations with Iran, which has been moribund since the UPA government assumed office in 2004.
Like Raos visit in February, Krishna is going to Tehran, on the face of it, for a summit of the Group of Fifteen (G15) countries.
At one point in the preparations for the G15 meeting, there was a suggestion within the government that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should attend the summit, but the proposal did not get off the ground for several reasons.
First, there was a feeling among several of Singhs top aides that he is not the man to jump-start Indo-Iranian relations. The Iranian leadership is said to harbour a personal grudge against the Prime Minister whom they regard as the architect of the Indian votes in 2006 and last year at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against Irans nuclear programme.
Second, they believe that Krishna is the right man for dealing with Irans foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who graduated from the external affairs ministers home turf of Bangalore university. Krishna is expected to work on the Bangalore chemistry with Mottaki during this weekend.
Indias primary interest in reviving the relations with Iran is its realisation that regional co-ordination, which also includes China and Russia, is essential as developments in Afghanistan enter a crucial phase, especially on reintegrating the Taliban into its society.
As part of New Delhis effort to look at its Afghan policy afresh, the government today announced the appointment of a new ambassador in Kabul. Gautam Mukhopadhaya, literally knows the ground in Afghanistan: after completing his university education, Mukhopadhaya embarked on an adventurous road trip that took him along the length and breadth of Afghanistan during its volatile 1970s.
He then continued the road journey through Central Asia, ending the trip in Turkey: all those countries carry an Afghan footprint in their ethnicity, culture and shared history.
When the Taliban was overthrown in 2001 by the Americans, India was able to reopen its embassy in Kabul. Mukhopadhaya, who was then at the National Defence College on a sabbatical, was handpicked to reopen the mission, which had suffered the ravages of the Taliban, because of his unusual knowledge of Afghanistan beyond the routine grasp of a diplomat on duty.
In Washington yesterday, one of the most significant outcomes of Karzais visit was a change in the US view of a peace jirga to be convened at the Afghan Presidents instance later this month.
The US had hitherto withheld support for the meeting which is expected to create a framework for weaning away the Taliban from violence and bringing it back into society.
India is obviously concerned about this process, which was discussed at length during Karzais visit to New Delhi last month. Because of the Pakistan-sponsored, Taliban-run terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, India has a direct security stake in this process.
This has been a cold week in Washington. Many Indians dealing with Afghanistan in New Delhi may have chuckled at the sight of Obama sending his Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke to the Andrews Air Force base near here to receive Karzai, whom Holbrooke had tried to humiliate and overthrow.
In the humbling of Holbrooke there may be good news for India. New Delhi can probably now resume normal dialogue on Afghanistan with the Americans which was hamstrung on account of Holbrookes nexus with the Pakistanis and his complicity in their desire to dominate Afghanistan with or without the US and by excluding India altogether.
Washington, May 13: New Delhi is finally embarking on a course in Kabul that will have a significant impact on Indias domestic security, ending several years of fumbling and drift in Indias policy on Afghanistan.
Aiding in the evolution of such a policy is the clarity which has emerged from Afghanistan President Hamid Karzais visit to Washington, that is concluding today.
Unusual for a superpower, in the run-up to Karzais arrival here, US President Barack Obama changed course on his approach to Karzai and accepted the Afghan leader as Washingtons partner by seizing personal control of Americas Kabul policy which has been pulling in opposite directions since Obama came into office last January.
Even as Karzai heads home after his productive Washington visit, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna will be taking a plane to Tehran for talks with the Iranian leadership. The talks are expected to end a long hiatus in New Delhi-Tehran ties, which had become a one-way traffic route with only the Iranians using the road of Indo-Iranian friendship.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao prepared the ground for Krishnas visit by travelling to Tehran ostensibly for foreign office consultations, but in reality to get a feel for re-energizing relations with Iran, which has been moribund since the UPA government assumed office in 2004.
Like Raos visit in February, Krishna is going to Tehran, on the face of it, for a summit of the Group of Fifteen (G15) countries.
At one point in the preparations for the G15 meeting, there was a suggestion within the government that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should attend the summit, but the proposal did not get off the ground for several reasons.
First, there was a feeling among several of Singhs top aides that he is not the man to jump-start Indo-Iranian relations. The Iranian leadership is said to harbour a personal grudge against the Prime Minister whom they regard as the architect of the Indian votes in 2006 and last year at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against Irans nuclear programme.
Second, they believe that Krishna is the right man for dealing with Irans foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who graduated from the external affairs ministers home turf of Bangalore university. Krishna is expected to work on the Bangalore chemistry with Mottaki during this weekend.
Indias primary interest in reviving the relations with Iran is its realisation that regional co-ordination, which also includes China and Russia, is essential as developments in Afghanistan enter a crucial phase, especially on reintegrating the Taliban into its society.
As part of New Delhis effort to look at its Afghan policy afresh, the government today announced the appointment of a new ambassador in Kabul. Gautam Mukhopadhaya, literally knows the ground in Afghanistan: after completing his university education, Mukhopadhaya embarked on an adventurous road trip that took him along the length and breadth of Afghanistan during its volatile 1970s.
He then continued the road journey through Central Asia, ending the trip in Turkey: all those countries carry an Afghan footprint in their ethnicity, culture and shared history.
When the Taliban was overthrown in 2001 by the Americans, India was able to reopen its embassy in Kabul. Mukhopadhaya, who was then at the National Defence College on a sabbatical, was handpicked to reopen the mission, which had suffered the ravages of the Taliban, because of his unusual knowledge of Afghanistan beyond the routine grasp of a diplomat on duty.
In Washington yesterday, one of the most significant outcomes of Karzais visit was a change in the US view of a peace jirga to be convened at the Afghan Presidents instance later this month.
The US had hitherto withheld support for the meeting which is expected to create a framework for weaning away the Taliban from violence and bringing it back into society.
India is obviously concerned about this process, which was discussed at length during Karzais visit to New Delhi last month. Because of the Pakistan-sponsored, Taliban-run terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, India has a direct security stake in this process.
This has been a cold week in Washington. Many Indians dealing with Afghanistan in New Delhi may have chuckled at the sight of Obama sending his Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke to the Andrews Air Force base near here to receive Karzai, whom Holbrooke had tried to humiliate and overthrow.
In the humbling of Holbrooke there may be good news for India. New Delhi can probably now resume normal dialogue on Afghanistan with the Americans which was hamstrung on account of Holbrookes nexus with the Pakistanis and his complicity in their desire to dominate Afghanistan with or without the US and by excluding India altogether.
