By NNN-APP,
New York : A report in a major American newspaper Wednesday shows the extent to which India is involved in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.
In a dispatch from Kabul, The Wall Street Journal said India has become a “major donor and new friend” to the Afghan government, stirring concerns in neighbouring Pakistan.
It said New Delhi has pledged $ 1.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan, making India the fifth largest donor nation to the country after the United States, Britain, Japan and Canada.
Pakistan does not rank in the top 10, the paper said.
Afghanistan is now the second-largest recipient of Indian aid after Bhutan.
From wells and toilets to power plants and satellite transmitters, India is seeding Afghanistan with a vast array of projects, correspondent Peter Wonacott wrote.
The $1.2 billion in pledged assistance includes projects both vital to Afghanistan’s economy, such as a completed road link to Iran’s border, and the construction of a new parliament building in Kabul.
“The Indian government is also paying to bring scores of bureaucrats to India, as it cultivates a new generation of Afghan officialdom,” the dispatch said.
Despite backing the Taliban in the past, Pakistan doesn’t want to see an anarchic Afghanistan, the paper said, citing Pakistani security analysts.
“Pakistan is doing nothing to thwart the elections in Afghanistan and everything to help Afghanistan stabilize and have a truly representative government,” Gen. Jehangir Karamat, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the U.S. and a retired army chief, was quoted as saying.
“We recognize that Afghanistan needs development assistance from every possible source to address the daunting challenges it is facing. We have no issue with that,” Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit was quoted as saying.
“What Pakistan is looking for is strict adherence to the principle of noninterference,” he added.
India’s aid has extended well beyond physical infrastructure to the training of accountants and economists, the Wall street Journal said.
Some believe there is room for cooperation between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan since both countries share an abiding interest in its stability.
“The opportunity is there,” says Gen. Karamat, “if we can get out of the straitjacket of the past.”