Afghanistan has asked for assistance in terms of supply of lethal and non-lethal weapons from India. Sources, however, do not deny this possibility but say “there is a mechanism to deal with this issue.”

India has assured to complete the construction of the new Parliament Building in Afghanistan by the first half of next year.

The Afghan President had a restricted meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh late yesterday evening.

According to sources he was assured that India, as a responsible neighbour, would consider the requests made by Afghanistan at the earliest.

The Spokesperson of the Indian External Affairs Ministry, Syed Akbaruddin when asked about the outcome of yesterday’s meeting said : “the meeting of the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Council is likely to take place later this year.”

The four working groups under the Strategic Partnership Council, including the one on political and security cooperation would meet soon.

India is already helping to train Afghan forces. India and Afghanistan have signed a mutual Strategic Partnership Agreement which deals with various sectors. Under this agreement Strategic Partnership Council has been set up co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister of India and Foreign Minister of Afghanistan. This Council which met in New Delhi in summer last year has four working groups namely on political and security cooperation, trade and economic cooperation, development cooperation and on human resources development, education and cultural cooperation.

The working group on political and security cooperation is co-chaired by the foreign secretaries of the two countries. The working group on trade and economic cooperation is co-chaired by the Indian Commerce Secretary and his Afghan counterpart. The working group on development cooperation is co-chaired by the Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Indian External Affairs Ministry and his Afghan counterpart. The working group on human resources development, education and cultural cooperation is co-chaired by the Director-General of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and his Afghan counterpart.

NATO forces are slated to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014 and the country will also go to the polls in the same year to elect a new President. As per Afghan Constitution President Karzai cannot opt to be in the race for presidency as he had already two terms in the office. The NATO forces withdrawal would, therefore, mean more engagement of regional powers to help the war-ravaged country in maintaining internal security and continuing development process.

President Karzai was on a three-day visit to India from Monday. He was conferred with a Honoris Causa Doctorate by the Lovely Professional University at Phagwara. In New Delhi after meeting the Indian Prime Minister, he met senior leader of the principal opposition party, BJP, LK Advani and CEOs of several companies.

The Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services, S Rama Durai had recently been to Afghanistan regarding skill development programme in that country. Note agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan visited Kabul to explore the possibility of setting up a National Agriculture University there.

India has ongoing dialogue with Uzbekistan on using trans-Afghan borders for promoting connectivity to Central Asia. This includes development of a part of the Chabahar port in Iran and some jetties. This is a medium-term project. Connectivity with Central Asia is contingent on also a railway project which is being developed by Iran which is going to be a connection from Chabahar North to Zahedan and Mashhad in the North and from there the Uzbek Railways has already developed a connection of 75 km from the town Termiz to Mazar-e-Sharif. There are plans to extend this connectivity to a little west to Heart, and eventually the Iranian Railway and the Uzbek connection would connect. This rail connectivity which would allow a container to be loaded from Mumbai, reach Chabahar and then be transported into Afghanistan and Central Asia.

India has executed in Afghanistan the transmission line which essentially brings Uzbek power into Kabul. This is a transmission line built by India from the border town of Termiz which is the opening of Afghanistan to the outside world, the bridge on the Amu Darya to Pul-e-Kumri town to Kabul. This is an instance of India and Uzbekistan cooperation.

Recently India eliminated all custom duties for entry of Afghan goods into a billion plus market. India has planned investment in the Hajigak iron ore mines with the intention not only to evacuate iron ore but also to construct Afghanistan’s first steel plant.

Among other India’s development projects in Afghanistan include the road from Zaranj to Delaram, the 220 kW transmission line from Pul-e-Kumri to Kabul, bilateral capacity-building programme where about 2000 Afghans are trained in various aspects of capacity building every year in India, humanitarian assistance in terms of wheat exports in the biscuits and important infrastructure programmes such as the Salma Dam and the building of the Parliament.