Ashraf Ghani visit: India should not shy away from selling arms to Afghanistan

Ghani's initial policy was to keep India at an arm's length in the security and defence sector. This marked a departure from his predecessor Hamid Karzai's approach. Karzai had pressed the Manmohan Singh government, especially after the signing of the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2011, not to restrict the defence cooperation to training and non-lethal stores. He had, in fact, given India a long list of weapon systems needed by the Afghan Army. However, Manmohan, unwilling to upset Pakistan, did not positively or sufficiently respond to Karzai's request.

Ghani made a state visit to India in April 2015. At that time he was still reluctant to enhance the security relationship. This was reflected in the absence of a direct mention of defence and security cooperation in the joint statement that was issued after his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Change of heart?

In July 2015, Ghani learnt that Pakistan had not disclosed Mullah Omar's death even while arranging a meeting between some Taliban and Afghan representatives under the Quadrilateral Process. He was furious and removed his hold on fuller defence cooperation. India sent three combat helicopters.

It is now clear that Ghani wants weapons from India. He told some confidantes before coming on this visit that he would ask India to expedite the supply of weapons. Earlier, the Afghan Army chief Qadam Shah Shahim visited India and reports indicate he asked for more combat helicopters, artillery and tanks.

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The joint statement issued after Ghani's latest meeting with Modi mentions that "the two leaders reaffirmed their resolve to counter terrorism and strengthen security and defence cooperation as envisaged in the India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement".

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar refused to go into details of Modi-Ghani discussions on defence cooperation. This is not surprising for such matters are not publically discussed. However, it is clear that there is no hesitation in principle to sending weapons to Kabul, otherwise the combat helicopters would not have been sent. Now, the army will have to assess what can be sent and will be properly maintained in Afghanistan.

It is good Modi announced that India will spend an additional $1 billion in economic assistance to Afghanistan. India's non-prescriptive assistance has till now earned it great goodwill among the Afghan people as has its policy of not interfering in the country's domestic processes.

A key motivation for Ghani to visit India at this stage was to show to the Afghan people, in particular the non-Pashtuns, that India has good relations with him. This is because his relationship with Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who is almost an equal partner along with him in the National Unity Government, has been very rocky. Last month Abdullah publically and bitterly complained about Ghani's non-observance of their power sharing agreement, which made the unity government possible.

Abdullah and his supporters in the erstwhile Northern Alliance have had close ties with India for the past two decades hence, Ghani's desire to send a signal to them.

Modi and Ghani have met six times in India and abroad over the past two years. They are slated to meet again during this year. This is good in itself, but India should not ignore its traditional constituencies in Afghanistan, especially old allies such as Abdullah. India needs to keep reaching out to all sections of Afghan opinion.

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