Afghanistan and India are set to forge closer ties Tuesday as Hamid Karzai visits New Delhi during a highly unstable time in South Asia.
The Afghan president, making his second trip to the Indian capital this year, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against a backdrop of shifting relations in the war-wracked and nuclear-armed region.
Some analysts in India predict that Karzai will elevate the role of India in stabilising his violence-torn country as he eyes a drawdown of US-led troops by 2014 after more than a decade of fighting.
They argue that Karzai is losing patience with Pakistan, whom he accuses of funding militant groups, and is unable to count on the United States.
“Karzai’s visit comes at a crucial juncture to endorse India’s involvement in Afghanistan,” Saeed Naqvi from the Observer Research Foundation think-tank told AFP.
“Karzai is coming to India to confer on India the tag ‘reliable ally’… India will get the right to play a more pronounced role (in Afghanistan) after Karzai’s visit.”
The Indian Express newspaper reported on Sunday that the Afghan leader would sign a “strategic partnership” agreement with Singh, the first such pact with any country in the world.
The proposed alliance, which foreign ministry officials declined to confirm, was said to include an Indian commitment to increase its training of Afghan security forces, including the police.
Indian involvement in Afghanistan is extremely sensitive because of the delicate and often deadly power games in South Asia.
“This visit creates a more of a natural window for India to have a sustainable role in Afghanistan post-2014,” Agrawal told AFP.
“Everything is moving rather quickly and the situation in Kabul is very fluid, but I wouldn’t say it is necessarily worse than six months ago,” a senior Indian foreign ministry official told AFP.
