Following the meeting between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has offered Afghanistan one billion dollar in economic assistance to strengthen the already close ties between the two countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India’s commitment to helping the war-torn country strengthen its education, health, agriculture and other sectors during talks with the Afghan President. In the joint statement in which India announced the one billion dollar offer there was no mention of providing weapons to help Afghanistan fight militants, which it has previously asked for. Furthermore, Modi and Ghani both called for an end to sponsorship and support of militants, though they did not name Pakistan.
Despite India’s evident interests in Afghanistan, the relations between the two countries cannot be simply measured in this perspective. India has been pouring in money into Afghanistan’s infrastructure since the toppling of the Taliban government in 2001. India has invested over two billion dollars in Afghanistan, making it the fifth largest bilateral donor to Afghanistan. This is the reason why Afghan people consider India as a friendly country, even over Pakistan, which hosts millions of Afghan refugees. What shapes people’s opinion are the developments that positively impact their lives. And India’s investment in infrastructure development in Afghanistan augurs well with Afghan citizens in this regard. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Afghanistan earlier this year to inaugurate a $290 million hydroelectric dam project, and opened Afghanistan’s new parliament complex in Kabul, built by India at an estimated cost of $90 million.
On the other hand, Pakistan continues to fall further down on the list of friendly countries for Afghanistan. Despite Ashraf Ghani’s initial leaning towards Islamabad, after he was elected as the President, Islamabad wasted a golden opportunity to mend ties that had been strained during the Karzai government. Unfortunately, Pakistan did not make efforts to invest in the projects that had a direct impact on Afghan citizens’ lives. Moreover, the shift in the power balance in the region with improving US-India ties also ushers well with the increased Indian presence in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the North-South corridor project that will connect the Central Asian Republics with the South Asian Sea through the port of Chabahar also augurs well with Afghanistan economically. If the project is successfully implemented, it will further reduce Afghanistan’s reliance on Pakistan for trade routes.
