Moving forward
Gen Raheel Sharif’s Kabul visit comes on the heels of Narendra Modi’s Kabul call where, as the photos show, both Hamid Karazai and Ashraf Ghani vied with each other to please the Indian Prime Minister. While inaugurating the nearly $90 million India-financed new Parliament building in Kabul, Modi expressed the hope that Pakistan would “become a bridge between South Asia and Afghanistan and beyond”. The issue is likely to crop up when Gen Sharif and Afghan leaders talk about plans regarding the future.
Afghanistan has a long experience of playing one power against another in pursuit of its national interests which is by no means unusual. It is doing the same as it deals with Islamabad and New Delhi. While Afghan Presidents have sought Pakistan’s help in bringing peace to their country, they have also continued to gun for Indian investments, aid, training for army cadets and military hardware. President Ghani also wants free flow of Afghan-India trade through Pakistan which has not been accepted by Islamabad so far. As one can understand from Narendra Modi’s Kabul speech, the interests of India and Kabul coincide on the issue. Pakistan, which is used to tying up every India-related issue with Kashmir, needs to realise that the position might not remain tenable for long, particularly when none of Pakistan’s close allies is willing to endorse it. That countries should remain engaged in mutual trade despite serious differences is considered a universal norm.
Gen Sharif met President Ghani, Abdullah Abdulah and other important civil-military leaders. Talks with Taliban are expected to begin in the next few months. According to ISPR the Afghan peace process and future strategy was to be chalked out during the meetings in Kabul. Among other things the two countries badly need to agree upon a border management mechanism. What stands in the way are differences on the Durand Line. While Pakistan considers this an international border, many Afghans strongly oppose the position. One waits to see how Gen Sharif manages to resolve knotty political problems with a military mindset.