Afghanistan has renewed a request to India for a range of lethal military hardware in addition to the four MI-35 helicopters, which New Delhi has already agreed to provide for the Afghan Air Force.
Kabul recently sent its request for a range of weapons and defence equipment – more than a year after a similar plea by former Afghan president Hamid Karzai was withdrawn by his successor Ashraf Ghani.
While New Delhi has already agreed to provide four helicopters to add some teeth into the air force of war-ravaged Afghanistan, renewal of the requests for more military hardware signalled Ghani’s government willingness to reverse its policy of distancing from India. Ghani’s National Security Advisor, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai of late visited New Delhi separately.
New Delhi previously kept its defence cooperation with Kabul limited to training Afghan National Army personnel in institutions in India and supplying non-lethal military hardware.
Officials told Deccan Herald that Atmar had given his counterpart and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval a list of weapons and other defence equipment Afghanistan wanted from India.
New Delhi is understood to be studying the list, which also included some hardware India received or developed under license following technology transfer from Russia.
Kabul conveyed to New Delhi that it urgently required a range of equipment not only to fight Taliban, but also Islamic State (IS), which is spreading its footprint in Afghanistan.
Moscow already gave its nod to New Delhi’s request for providing the Russian MI-35 helicopters – currently being used by the Indian Air Force – to Afghanistan. New Delhi conveyed to Kabul that it would have to check availability of the equipment.
India is also set to host the “Heart of Asia” conference meeting of Istanbul Ministerial Process on Afghanistan next year. The decision to host the conference was conveyed to Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister during his recent visit to New Delhi.
His visit also saw New Delhi and Kabul discussing activating the India-Afghanistan strategic partnership agreement, which was signed in October 2011. He also discussed with Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar probable dates for Modi’s visit to Kabul to inaugurate the Afghan Parliament complex built by India.
New Delhi, however, is yet to decide who would represent India in this year’s conference, which Pakistan government is hosting in Islamabad.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj received an invitation from Pakistan to attend the conclave in Islamabad early next month.
The invitation came from Swaraj’s counterpart Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Affairs Advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif.
“We have yet to decide on the level of our participation,” External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
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