Last week, I had the privilege to speak with a small group of Indian parliamentarians who were visiting the United States. The subject was U.S. policy in South and Central Asia. After offering remarks we turned to discussion. No surprise – U.S. policy toward Pakistan consumed much of the remainder of the session. A key point of contention was whether the United States was abandoning Afghanistan to Pakistani influence-cum-subjugation. There’s a lot to unpack in terms of how New Delhi and Washington each views Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan. It’s also probably impossible to separate those views from how Washington and New Delhi see one another’s ongoing engagement in Afghanistan.
For most of the decade after 9/11, the United States viewed Indian involvement in Afghanistan through the prism of Pakistani sensitivities. That approach has changed in the last lustrum, perhaps not surprisingly as U.S. perceptions of Pakistan have grown less positive. Today, the U.S. government would arguably like to see India do more, not less in Afghanistan, though both Washington and New Delhi appear to agree that putting Indian boots on the ground is a bad idea. As U.S. forces continue to draw down in Afghanistan, the desire for India to become a net security provider in the region is likely to grow stronger. Yet if New Delhi is not going to put troops in Afghanistan – and right now few people are arguing that it should – then how else might Indian involvement contribute to stability in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal?
A new policy memo by Alyssa Ayres – a former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and who now resides at the Council on Foreign Relations – offers a cogent and balanced look at how to leverage India’s strengths to contribute to Afghanistan’s stability. Specifically, Ayres wades into some of the thornier issues related to Indian security assistance, which if it increased would surely cause even more anxiety in Rawalpindi. To that, Ayres replies that Indian collaboration in Afghanistan involving no Indian troops on the ground should not be subject to a Pakistani veto. Policymakers will need to balance the compelling case Ayres makes with myriad other concerns as they calculate how best to secure U.S. interests in the region and avoid rising instability. Those tasked with making these decisions, and people who simply want to know more about the options at hand should take note of what Ayres has to say.
Stephen Tankel is a senior editor at War on the Rocks.
Image: Afghan President Ghani meets Prime Minister Modi at the 18th SAARC summit, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Gus 
B-Sabre 
Bilal 
Mohammad Arubi 
Mark T 
Pakistan , India and Afghanistan should form a military and economic union and all the territories opened for good people to get easy VISA, just like USA and Canada. All these country needs to have strong minority protection law, whoever are minority at what ever place.
Wow. Not. Going. To happen. There are too many flashpoints between India and Pakistan (Kashmir, the Mumbai attacks, ISI support for Islamic terrorism, nculear arms, memories of the division of India and Pakistan, etc) that makes this even thinkable. This would be like North Korea and Japan forming a common trade union (and yes, I said NORTH Korea).
This article is so 8 months old.It would have been more apt had it been published 8 months ago but now the ground situation is completely different.These last 8 months have seen cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan like never before and both countries are now finally moving towards peaceful region.Both US and India have tried to exploit Afghanistan for their own interests and now Afghans have realised it so It will be next to impossible for India to get the same leverage back in Afghanistan which it possessed during the puppet Karzai’s reign.Pakistan argued in favour of dialagoue between Taliban and Afghans like a decade ago but at that time Pakistan was labelled as pro Taliban but now whole world is backing the dialogue.What changed?Nothing.Its just that Pakistanis and Afghans belong here and know the dynamics of this region unlike Americans and Indians.
Trusting the Pakistani generals, is nothing but a suicidal thing on the part of the Afghan government,lacking foreign policy credentials. India is Afghanistan’s time-tested friend.It’s the need of the hour to further cement bilateral relations, and jointly combat the jihadi barbaric terrorists being aided and abetted by Pakistani generals in pursuance of their strategy for regional hegemony- chasing chimera.
Better India than China… either way each has more than enough bodies to throw into white elephant black hole money pit that is Afghanistan.
Lately India is also supposed to be spreading around some money in Dushanbe buying some friends in Tajikistan.
Going forward another interesting area to watch will be Baluchistan.