Kerry and India’s Afghan War
June 28, 2013 M K Bhadrakumar
Delhi is far from certain that the Taliban are anywhere near bidding farewell to arms and morphing into a political platform willing to share power.
The visit by the United States Secretary of State John Kerry to Delhi earlier in the week brought into focus the divergences that appeared lately regarding the Afghan situation against the backdrop of America’s peace talks in Doha with the Taliban.
On the eve of Kerry’s arrival, Delhi took the unusual step of making it clear that apropos the differences that cropped up between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration regarding the Doha talks, its sympathy lies with Kabul. To be sure, India expounds the imperative need of an inclusive Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace process and takes it very seriously that the “red line” that the international community prescribed as the basis for any reconciliation with the Taliban should not be fudged – namely, the Taliban ending their long-standing ties with the al-Qaeda, bidding farewell to arms and respecting the Afghan constitution and, of course, jettisoning their past practices of human rights abuse.
Delhi is far from certain that the Taliban are anywhere near bidding farewell to arms and morphing into a political platform willing to share power. Nor does Delhi share the enthusiasm voiced by senior US officials that there is a genuine shift in the Pakistani policy. Woven into all this is the deep concern that India’s national security interests might be jeopardized if the US strikes a deal with the Taliban in self-interest that might overlook its concerns.
In the event, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid stressed after the talks with Kerry on Monday that Delhi is determined to be “on the same page” with the US and is willing to accept that the Doha talks are essentially an “experiment” in the search for “sustainable peace” in Afghanistan. Equally, Khurshid signaled that Delhi accepts the assurance given by Kerry that if and when the Doha talks proceed – and he conspicuously stressed the ‘if’ – the US “will ensure that none of the concerns of India are overlooked or undermined.”
http://indrus.in/blogs/2013/06/28/kerry_and_indias_afghan_war_26577.html
