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India Stepping Up to the Plate in Afghanistan
The Diplomat ^ | May 07, 2014 | Niharika Betkerur

Posted on 05/11/2014 1:35:05 PM PDT by JerseyanExile

A deal with Moscow makes clear that India has no plans to abandon Afghanistan post 2014.

In a recent deal with Moscow, India has agreed to pay for military equipment sourced from Russia to Afghanistan. The equipment will include artillery, helicopters, tanks, and armored vehicles. India will also pay to repair old Soviet hardware left behind after the Russian withdrawal in 1989. The scale and exact composition of the deal have yet to be announced, but it is known that the first order has already been placed. India had so far hesitated to provide lethal weapons to Afghanistan for fear of antagonizing Pakistan. However, the deal suggests a rethink in the halls of South Block on India’s role in the region after the ISAF withdrawal.

The reason behind that rethink is fairly simple: the winds of change that are blowing this year in Afghanistan. The ISAF is winding down its presence and a new president is about to be elected in the country’s first democratic transfer of power. These transitions have prompted Afghanistan’s neighbors to accelerate their thinking about the future of the region. India has frequently expressed a desire to see the emergence of a strong, stable and independent Afghanistan. With foreign forces no longer taking the lead role, the only way to ensure stability in Afghanistan – and by extension in the region – is to help increase the capabilities of its young army. Other interests are also at stake. Any economic assistance provided by India to Afghanistan would be stripped of meaning if the latter was not strong enough to defend the products of the assistance. Moreover, India needs Afghanistan to be able to defend the former’s business investments, stalled for nearly three years.

(Excerpt) Read more at thediplomat.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; asia; bjp; india; narendramodi; russia

1 posted on 05/11/2014 1:35:05 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
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To: JerseyanExile

Is this good or bad the world is in such a state of flux as of late I just can’t keep up


2 posted on 05/11/2014 1:41:08 PM PDT by al baby (Hi MomÂ…)
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To: JerseyanExile

As they should be. It’s at least as important to their interests as it is ours.


3 posted on 05/11/2014 1:51:41 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead...)
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To: Free Vulcan

I do not think they will be quite as constrained as
we were.


4 posted on 05/11/2014 1:55:12 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: tet68

Let’s hope so huh?


5 posted on 05/11/2014 1:56:03 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead...)
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To: JerseyanExile

I guess its their turn.


6 posted on 05/11/2014 1:58:59 PM PDT by henkster (Do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
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To: JerseyanExile

Killing Muslims — they’re doing it wrong.


7 posted on 05/11/2014 1:59:39 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: JerseyanExile

I like India. As a nation, they worry about pretty much all the nations we worry about.


8 posted on 05/11/2014 2:36:45 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: JerseyanExile
India has frequently expressed a desire to see the emergence of a strong, stable and independent Afghanistan.

They've also expressed a desire to feed all their people.

9 posted on 05/11/2014 2:53:18 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi (NOPe to GOPe)
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To: Zuben Elgenubi
>"They've also expressed a desire to feed all their people."

Unfortunately "Their People" includes all life forms. Cattle, grasshoppers, snakes, rats, cats, bats, goats, and stoats.

Until they recognize their place in the food chain ALL of them will starve.

10 posted on 05/11/2014 2:57:51 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist (Jeremiah 50:32 "The arrogant one will stumble and fall ; / ?)
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To: JerseyanExile

Don Corleone white courtesy phone.


11 posted on 05/11/2014 3:55:12 PM PDT by smaug6 (We can't afford to be innocent!! Stand up and face the enemy.)
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To: JerseyanExile
India had so far hesitated to provide lethal weapons to Afghanistan for fear of antagonizing Pakistan.

I'm gonna call BS. India probably figured Uncle Sam would provide. The current reality is that the US hasn't even provided prop-driven ground attack aircraft, let alone front line jet fighters. We've spent a lot of money fighting the Taliban, but we've provided precious little equipment for securing the country against foreign invasion. Part of it may be that we just don't trust the locals, and don't want an Afghan unit taking out an American battalion in an oversized version of a green-on-blue attack. Either way, it makes for a testy relationship.

12 posted on 05/11/2014 4:02:16 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: JerseyanExile

Hindus are supplying muslims with weapons?

Do I have this right?


13 posted on 05/11/2014 4:07:41 PM PDT by moovova
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To: moovova
Hindus are supplying muslims with weapons? Do I have this right?

Sort of like American capitalists providing Russian communists with oil, food, trucks and weaponry during WWII. Believe it or not, India attacked Pakistan in Bangladesh's (East Pakistan, a majority Muslim region of Pakistan, at the time) behalf and provided Bangladesh with weaponry during its successful secession effort from Pakistan.

14 posted on 05/11/2014 4:16:34 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

My mind goes back to the partition of India with Lord Mountbatten at the helm and the huge slaughters that took place between the two religious groups. I would think they’re still mortal enemies.


15 posted on 05/11/2014 9:04:39 PM PDT by moovova
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To: moovova

Afghanistan is an enemy of Pakistan. Around a quarter of Pakistani territory is filled with ethnic Pashtuns. This was land carved off of the Kingdom of Afghanistan by the English back in the days of the British Raj. Pakistan and in particular the ISI have been working since the days of the Afghan civil war to keep that nation fractious and divided, in order to try and prevent Afghan revanchism. Indian support for Afghanistan is an indirect way to threaten Pakistan.


16 posted on 05/11/2014 9:36:31 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
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To: moovova
My mind goes back to the partition of India with Lord Mountbatten at the helm and the huge slaughters that took place between the two religious groups. I would think they’re still mortal enemies.

These things are much more complicated. The Ottomans raided up and down European coasts, enslaving millions of people, including Frenchmen and Englishmen. Yet the Crimean War pitted France and Britain on the Ottoman side against the Russians. Ultimately, it was more important to halt Russian territorial expansion that would increase the threat from that source to Europe's continued sovereignty than it was to remember old grudges against the Turk.

India shares with Afghanistan genetic and cultural legacies. What it fears is the creation of a Pakistani empire that includes mineral-rich Central Asia, with Afghanistan as the gateway. We are allied with the various Muslim emirates and sultanates in the Middle East because it would be advantageous to us if they were not welded into a single gigantic nation by someone like Saddam. Especially given that they probably represent roughly half of the world's identified oil reserves. It might make Israel's continued survival impossible without direct American intervention.

17 posted on 05/12/2014 5:19:00 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei; JerseyanExile

Thank you for filling in the blanks for me.


18 posted on 05/12/2014 5:54:27 AM PDT by moovova
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