India to shore up military ties with Afghanistan

Gearing up for 2014 when the US Army withdraws last of its troops from Afghanistan, India has decided to shore up its military engagement with the terrorists-ravaged country by an enhanced training of its next generation military officers and also increasing number of its military personnel posted their for training purposes.

As per this enhanced military cooperation, the number of Indian soldiers in Afghanistan is set to increase and so is the number of Afghanistan cadets being trained in Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun and National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune. This programme is the first concrete step after the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed between Kabul and New Delhi in October 2011. Under the agreement, India, with the world’s third-largest army, had agreed to train, equip and build the capacity of the Afghan National Army, which is presently an infantry specific force.

 Pics of football team of young Afghan girls and boys. The girls were playing in India for the first time. (Photos by Ritu Sharma)

According to well-placed sources, “With Afghanistan we have a strategic partnership and now we are becoming the number one country outside NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) to train the Afghan Army and sign the defence cooperation pact with Kabul. The idea is to target their next generation human capital.”

It has been a “conscious decision” on the part of the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Defence to train the Afghani forces to allow them “to fend for themselves”.

The Afghanistan Army had started sending its troops for training in India in 2005. Since then every year around 250 cadets are being given pre-commissioning training at the premier military institutions like the NDA and the IMA. “Approval has come to increase the vacancy for Afghani troops to about a 1000 cadets per year. It is likely to be achieved by 2014,” sources added.

Also the Indian Army, with its expertise of counter insurgency and counter-terrorism for the last five decades, will be imparting the training to the Afghan troops in this arena as well. Also senior level officers are likely to be provided focused training at three specialized institutions in India: The Commando School in Belgaum in south India, The Counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare (CIJW) School in Mizoram, in northeast of India, and The High Altitude Warfare School in Sonamarg, Kashmir.

Couple with this, India has deployed its training and medical teams from the Army to train their counterparts in the strife-torn country. Following the strategic cooperation agreement, the number of Indian troops in the country is also set to go up. “Our cooperation with Afghanistan is based on medical training, military training and giving of non-lethal equipment and this is surely going to go up in terms of numbers,” the sources added.

Afghanistan has also sought weapons from India and the proposal for the same is presently under consideration of the MEA and the Defence Ministry. India’s increasing involvement in Afghanistan is resented by Pakistan which fears that the foothold might be utilized by New Delhi to squeeze Islamabad on the Western Front.

The US has decided to pull out its last troop from the Afghani soil by 2014. For India, its military presence in Afghanistan would give it some strategic depth against Pakistan. Since the US forces attacking Taliban in Afghanistan, India has ruled out sending any troops in Kabul for fighting with the international coalition forces. Instead it has been providing Afghanistan with soft assistance in terms of road-construction, education and medical aid as mandated by United Nations.