Implication of US withdrawal from Afghan & Change of India’s Policy

Implication of US withdrawal from Afghan & Change of India’s Policy

Subject : International Relations

Context : Recently, the United States under President Joe Biden is finally set to draw out the last of its boots on the ground after 10 years of waging a war against the Taliban, and another 10 years of vows to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Concept :

• For Afghanistan: An emboldened Taliban insurgency is making battlefield gains, and prospective peace talks are stalled.
• It is feared that once foreign forces are gone, Afghanistan will dive deeper into civil war.
• For the United States and its coalition partners: All combat troops and 20 years of accumulated war materiel will soon be gone.
• The head of US Central Command will have authority until September 2021 to defend Afghan forces against the Taliban.
• For India: The prospects are largely uncertain as its relationship with the alternate regime is precarious, if not in complete tatters.
• New Delhi, which has tacitly been supporting a West-installed democratic government against the Taliban rule is suddenly on unchartered plains.
• India is the largest regional donor in Afghanistan, with pledges of around $3 billion and the Taliban often attacks these foreign-backed projects such as power plants, highways and other such installations.

Change in the Indian foreign policy towards Afghanistan

• India’s soft-power forays in Afghanistan have been widely appreciated except by Pakistan.
• India followed a consistent policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and having generously provided humanitarian aid, infrastructural development in many fields, educational, medical, and power generation assistance.
• India has made it clear that any resolution of Afghanistan must be “Afghan-led, Afghan-ruled, and Afghan-controlled”.
• India must open up channels of communication with moderate elements in the Taliban with the likely changing power equations in Kabul.
• India should follow not only a policy which furthers its national interests but must also have moralistic and human overtones to it.
• India should strongly strive for a UN peacekeeping force to be stationed in Afghanistan which ensures the prevention of a civil war from breaking out there.
• India must also endeavour to get Russia, Iran, and the US on the same page to conceive and implement a suitable regional policy for the strife-torn Afghanistan.
• India must continue with its all-encompassing humanitarian assistance to the Kabul government.