BackNational security adviser Ajit Doval visits Kabul
This is Doval's first face-to-face meeting with the new Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai administration that took office in September
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New Delhi: India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval paid a visit to Kabul this week for the first face-to-face contact with the new Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai administration that took office in September, a person familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity. He did not give any further details.
Doval made the visit on Wednesday.
India enjoyed close ties with Ahmadzai’s predecessor, the India-educated Hamid Karzai, and has been making efforts to reach out to the new Afghan President since he took office on 29 September.
In a congratulatory phone call to Ahmadzai on 15 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Ahmadzai to visit India at his earliest convenience.
India has pledged $2 billion in reconstruction and aid to Afghanistan since 2001 when the US-led forces routed the Taliban and forced their exit from Kabul.
India “will stand with him (Ahmadzai) as a friend and a partner, at every step on the way, as his government moves forward in its efforts to build a strong, stable, peaceful, democratic, inclusive and prosperous nation," a government statement quoted Modi as saying.
The Afghan President “accepted Prime Minister Modi’s invitation to visit India at the earliest opportunities and also suggested immediate commencement of dialogue between the two governments, including between their national security advisors and economic advisors," it added.
Mint could not immediately confirm whether Doval extended an invitation from Modi to Ahmadzai to visit India.
According to an early Indian assessment, Ahmadzai is seen as neutral vis-a-vis former president Karzai, who was seen as more friendly towards India, or even the former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who lost the presidential race to Ahmadzai. Under a US-brokered power-sharing deal with Ahmadzai, Abdullah is currently the Prime Minister of Afghanistan.
India has a strategic partnership pact with Afghanistan and trains Afghan soldiers, besides offering other kinds of support to the Afghan government. India has been trying to shore up its support base in Afghanistan since 2001 when it was seen as being on the side of the former Soviet Union which had invaded the country in the 1980s. India’s influence saw a further decline when Pakistan-backed Taliban forces took control of Kabul in 1996. India’s chief concern is that Afghanistan could be used by Pakistan for anti-India activities in case an administration sympathetic to Pakistan comes to power.
Interestingly, Doval’s visit came on the day the Afghan and Chinese governments announced that Ahmadzai would be making his first visit abroad, to China, after taking office as Afghanistan’s President.
“At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will pay a state visit to China from October 28 to 31," a statement posted on the Chinese foreign ministry’s website said.
A statement on Ahmadzai’s official website gave some details of his itinerary—meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang, besides others.
“Signing agreements between the two countries is another item of this visit’s agenda. Elsewhere in his visit to China, President Ahmadzai will speak to a gathering of Afghan and Chinese investors and businessmen, and will pay a visit to large installations and structures in the host country. Dr Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai will also deliver a speech in Xinhua University of Beijing City, and will speak at a panel of discussion on various aspects of the two countries’ relations, and regional and international issues," a statement from the Afghan president’s office said.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday, Afghan interior minister Umer Daudzai described India as a “time-tested friend" but added that Afghanistan was looking at China as a new potential stakeholder in the peace process with the Taliban, given the country’s close ties with Pakistan, which is the main supporter of the insurgent group.
In New Delhi for the sixth core group meeting of the Munich Security Conference that reviews global security challenges and government policies, Daudzai also said his country’s newly installed government was reviewing a peace process launched by its predecessor with the rebel Taliban, adding that the new administration was looking at embarking on the reconciliation process with a fresh approach.
Daudzai, a former ambassador to Pakistan, said there was no progress in the efforts made by the previous Hamid Karzai government. The new government in Afghanistan had begun its assessment of “the weaknesses and the defaults in the (reconciliation) process" begun in 2010 with the setting up of the High Peace Council, the Afghan minister said.
India and Pakistan have for decades vied for influence over Afghanistan. India saw its influence decline rapidly when Pakistan-backed Taliban forces took control of Kabul in 1996. Since the ouster of the Taliban in November 2001 following a US-led invasion, India has been working hard to shore up goodwill among Afghans, with a slew of low-profile development projects pledging billions of dollars in aid and assistance.
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