India
and Pakistan ramp up aid as they jostle for influence in Kabul
(Reuters) - India's most important message for Afghanistan is that it is not leaving, and it is
backing that message with the biggest aid package it has ever given another
country.
Indian
diplomats insist the message is meant as reassurance for allies in Afghanistannervous about waning
international support as NATO withdraws its troops. Yet it could equally have
been chosen to send a warning to India's arch-rival, Pakistan.
The nuclear-armed
neighbors both want to secure influence in Kabul after foreign combat forces
leave this year, and both are using aid as part of their strategy.
India's $2 billion aid
package includes several big projects, including a white marble parliament in
Kabul that is rising up next to the blasted ruins of the old king's palace.
Relations between
Afghanistan and Pakistan are rockier. Afghan President Hamid
Karzai regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting Taliban militants, and has
curtly made clear he cares more about security than Pakistani aid.
Some Afghans fear that the
regional rivalry might drag their country into a proxy war.
"This is a very
sensitive situation. Both are powerful, important allies," said Senator
Arifullah Pashtoon, chairman of Afghanistan's foreign relations committee.
"India is our friend. But Pakistan is our
twin."
With the NATO withdrawal
looming, Afghanistan has increasingly sought Indian military assistance, while
Pakistani offers of military help have largely been snubbed.
India, wary of antagonizing Pakistan, has refused
to supply lethal equipment but that may change after Indian elections due by
May. For now, New Delhi relies on soft power.
AID WITH NO STRINGS
A handsome new
cream-and-red sandstone building in New Delhi houses the Indian agency
overseeing foreign projects. Created in 2011, the agency's 25 officers oversee
billions of dollars. An official, who declined to be identified, estimated
India is expanding such projects by about 20 percent a year.
The agency is determined
to do things differently from the donors who used to patronize India. Overheads
are minimal: just one person in India's Kabul embassy oversees the Afghan
package and all money goes through the Afghan government budget.
"We are not going to
link development to political demands," the Indian official said. "We
have experienced the futility of doing this, ourselves."
That approach has
delighted Kabul, which is fed up with lectures about corruption from Western
donors whose own wastefulness can be breathtaking.
Indian engineers have
built power lines from Uzbekistan to Kabul - on time and $20 million under
budget - and a road to Iran, now pockmarked by bomb
blasts, designed to break landlocked Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistani
ports.
For wells, schools and
clinics, India simply pays the Afghan government to build them and report back.
"We have no reason to
believe that the money would be wasted," Amar Sinha, the Indian ambassador
to Kabul, said in his heavily fortified residence.
But at a school in Achin,
a boulder-strewn dustbowl a day's walk from the Pakistani border, Reuters found
a gaping hole in the roof, cracked walls and broken desks and chairs.
Head teacher Sabghatullah
was surprised that records in Kabul said the school was complete.
"When India pays for
such projects they should check on them, otherwise it is a waste of
money," said 18-year-old student Samidullah Swan.
Afghanistan regularly
ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world, a source of strain in ties
with the United States and other donors and a major hurdle for development.
PROBLEMS WITH PAKISTAN
Pakistan has also ramped
up its aid. When Karzai visited Islamabad last year, Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif announced an increase in total aid from $385 million to $500 million and
enthused about roads, railways and medical centers.
When Karzai took the microphone
he responded sourly: "The primary concern is lack of security ... and the
continued menace of terrorism."
Pakistan insists it is
doing all it can to help Kabul, including sheltering three million Afghan
refugees.
But suspicion dogs their
relationship, with Karzai accusing Pakistan of harboring Afghan Taliban and
other militants. Pakistan has a long record of using militants as tools, in
particular against India.
India also accuses
Pakistan-linked militants of attacks on its Kabul embassy, its consulate in the
Afghan city of Jalalabad near the border with Pakistan, and a hostel housing
Indian aid workers.
Pakistan denies such
charges and accuses others of the same game. Some in Islamabad are convinced
Afghanistan is nurturing factions of the Pakistani Taliban for future leverage.
Pakistani officials also
suspect India of secretly fomenting a separatist rebellion in Baluchistan, a
mineral- and gas-rich province on southwestern Pakistan's Afghan border.
"Why does India have
consulates in Jalalabad? Why does it have a consulate in Kandahar?" asked
one Pakistani security official.
"There are no Indians
there," the official said, implying India's real motive was meddling in
Pakistan.
The official Pakistani
line is more measured, with improved relations with India at the heart of
Sharif's foreign policy.
However, Pakistan's
powerful military is wary: its worst nightmare is a hostile India on Pakistan's
eastern flank and an unfriendly Afghanistan backed by India to the west.
Pakistan's relations with Iran are also cooling as cash-strapped
Sharif courts Saudi support.
"Pakistan sees itself
as being encircled by hostile countries," said retired Pakistani general
Talat Masood.
As NATO's presence fades,
Karzai is turning to India. More than 650 Afghan officers and members of its
special forces have been trained in India. Now he wants tanks, mortars, field guns
and air craft.
While India has been wary
of supplying weapons or sending trainers to Afghanistan because it does not
want to provoke Pakistan, that may change after India's election.
"It's not a poke in
the eye for Pakistan, it's defensive capability for the Afghans," said
Lieutenant General R.K. Sawhney, a former head of Indian military intelligence
who is lobbying to give Afghanistan more support.
Pakistan has trained a
handful of Afghan officers but Karzai has declined to send more, said
presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi. When Sharif offered $20 million to help the
Afghan army last November, Karzai did not even acknowledge it.
Senator Pashtoon said he
was worried about the consequences for Afghanistan of alienating such an
important neighbor.
"Our government
thinks only good things of India," he said. "We have had 30 years of
war. We do not want another 30."
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