India and Afghanistan signed a wide-ranging strategic partnership here on Tuesday, a move that is unlikely to go down well with Islamabad at a time when its ties with Kabul have soured. The agreement envisions bilateral ties on an altogether different and broader plane, encompassing areas such as security and economic cooperation.
The most significant aspect of the strategic partnership is the political and security cooperation it envisages in areas such as combating international terrorism.
The agreement provides for the training, equipping and capacity-building of Afghan national security forces which is being seen as a preparation for the drawdown of US-led Nato forces by 2014.
Thus far, treading carefully, New Delhi had been largely pumping aid to help build Afghanistan’s infrastructure.
This aid programme for “development and capacity-building efforts in Afghanistan” will continue under the strategic partnership agreement. Apart from helping rebuild the war-ravaged country, it has also been providing basic military training to Afghan soldiers at its military academies. The armed forces have also been sending doctors to Afghanistan to work there.
The agreement was signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who arrived in the national capital earlier on Tuesday for a two-day visit that is seen as one laden with significance where the deepening of bilateral ties between the two countries are concerned.