Strengthening ties

Leaders of the interim government in Afghanistan visit New Delhi to reciprocate India's consistent support to the Northern Alliance.

WITH the Taliban militia pummelled into submission by the war planes of the United States and all the major cities of Afghanistan now under the control of the new government set up in Kabul, many top Afghan officials have made New Delhi their first port of call. Two prominent figures in the present government, Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni (see interview) and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, were in the Indian capital in the first half of December. Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim is expected to visit New Delhi later in the month. All three will keep their high-profile jobs in the interim government that will formally take charge on December 22.

Officially Qanooni and Abdullah were on a "private" visit. Both have close relatives resident in the Indian capital.

When the Northern Alliance was in the wilderness, India was among the handful of countries that actively backed it. The cooperation between the Indian government and the anti-Taliban grouping had started soon after the Taliban took control over most of Afghanistan in 1996. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's Afghan policy was a continuation of the one that was initiated by the United Front government.

The return of the Northern Alliance under fortuitous circumstances has come as a diplomatic bonanza for New Delhi. Despite the massive military support the U.S. provided them in the military campaign in the last two months, the Northern Alliance has shown that it has not forgotten friends who helped it when it was in dire financial and political straits.

Islamabad is noticeably unhappy with the sudden ascendancy of New Delhi in diplomatic matters related to Afghanistan, though the new President, Hamid Karzai, is known to be close to both the U.S. and Pakistan. Although India did not succeed in breaking into the select six-plus-two grouping on Afghanistan, evidently it enjoys much diplomatic and political clout with the present dispensation in Afghanistan. India, Russia and Iran, the traditional backers of the Northern Alliance, were among the first few countries to reopen their embassies in Kabul.

Russia too is happy with the current turn of events in Afghanistan though it is worried about America's long-term game plan for the region. The key Ministries in the new government are held by Northern Alliance leaders, who are beholden to Russia. Russia was the first country to reopen its mission in Kabul by landing an armed aid mission in military cargo planes at Bagran airport much to the surprise of the Americans. The U.S. managed to reopen its embassy in Kabul only in early December. The Americans were not too happy with the haste with which the Russians re-established their presence in Kabul and the help and encouragement they provided to the Northern Alliance as it was making the military push towards Kabul.

Iran is the most sceptical among the backers of the Northern Alliance about the turn of events in the region. Teheran feels sidelined by the recent developments. Unlike New Delhi, which seems obsessed only with the issues of terrorism and Pakistan, Iran has reasons to feel threatened by the U.S. presence in its backyard and also Washington's growing grip over the lucrative oil and gas business in the region.

Islamabad was perturbed by some statements Qanooni made in Delhi. "Pakistan should realise that its policy of terrorism has failed in Afghanistan and in other places," said Qanooni. He told mediapersons in New Delhi that the government of Pakistan should stop meddling in the internal affairs of his country. He added that the new government in Afghanistan was willing to have good relations with Pakistan if it was prepared to "give up its old ways and review its strategy of the past".

During his visit, Qanooni thanked the Indian government for its support to the anti-Taliban alliance. He requested India's help in the task of reconstructing his country. Many in the international community suspect that once it achieves its short-term political and military goals, the U.S. may again leave Afghanistan in the lurch.

"We want countries that were our friends during our bad times to remain friends in the time of Afghanistan's reconstruction," the Interior Minister said in Delhi. New Delhi reciprocated by pledging help for the reconstruction without any preconditions.

India has not been invited to send forces for the international peacekeeping mission visualised for Afghanistan. Troops from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, and from pro-Western Muslim countries are expected to provide the bulk of the peacekeeping force. India and Pakistan will in all likelihood not be involved in the tricky task of peacekeeping.

Some Northern Alliance leaders, such as outgoing President Burhanuddin Rabbani, have expressed their misgivings about the necessity to have foreign peacekeepers in the country. Rabbani, who is critical of the Bonn accord which led to the agreement on the creation of the interim government, said recently that he hoped that this would be the last time foreign countries interfered in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. Mohammed Fahim, the designated Defence Minister, is also unenthusiastic about the presence of foreign peacekeepers. He said that their numbers should not exceed one thousand and that they should have a "very limited role".

According to Indian officials, New Delhi has offered to help in training Afghanistan's police force. In many Afghan cities, law and order has become a casualty of the war. India's special envoy to Afghanistan, S.K. Lambah, held wide-ranging discussions with top officials of the new government during a recent visit to Kabul. Besides offering help for the reconstruction programme, he discussed the prospects of long-term cooperation in matters of defence.

THE visit of the Foreign Minister-designate of the interim government, Abdullah Abdullah, was overshadowed by the terrorist attack on Parliament House. During his brief interaction with the media in Delhi, Abdullah Abdullah defended the new government's prerogative to choose its friends. He said that it was Afghanistan's right to maintain bilateral ties with any country and the recent high-level visits should be seen in this context.

"India is a major power in the region and Pakistan is a neighbouring country. And it is Afghanistan's right to maintain bilateral relations with India as well as Pakistan,"said Abdullah. Abdullah was the articulate spokesman of the Northern Alliance during the course of the war against the Taliban, and has been widely interviewed by international television networks. Abdullah was in Delhi at the invitation of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, to discuss the situation in the region and the problems the new government in Afghanistan was facing. It was Abdullah's first visit to a foreign country after being designated Foreign Minister.

Those conversant with the politics of the region say that though Islamabad's Afghanistan policy is in tatters right now, it still has some important cards to play. Since Pashtuns constitute the majority of the Afghan population, Islamabad will continue to exert influence in Afghanistan. The interim government named in Bonn still has to gain credibility among the Afghan people, and it faces the uphill task of keeping the country united.

The U.S. has also gone out of its way to bail out the Pervez Musharraf government in Pakistan from tricky situations in recent months. U.S. officials have not denied the fact that 12 Pakistani military planes were allowed to land in Kunduz and Mazar-e-Sharif to evacuate Pakistani fighters trapped with the Taliban and Al Qaeda troops. "The Americans allowed the Pakistani terrorists to escape," said a diplomat based in Delhi. He is of the opinion that the U.S. has long-term plans in the region. "Pakistan is more important for the Americans in the region. They can destabilise the situation in Afghanistan very easily." According to the diplomat, who is conversant with the politics of the region, it will be unwise on India's part to place all its bets on the Northern Alliance. The policy could boomerang in the long run.