Is Afghanistan The Next Battleground For India-Pakistan?

 

Afghanistan: Stirring Indo-Pak Tensions? -- Al Jazeera  

We discuss India's growing influence in Afghanistan, and what it means for the volatile region.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in India, seeking military aid at a time when tensions are running high on Afghanistan's disputed border with Pakistan.

Kabul's overtures to New Delhi are likely to rile Islamabad, where a new government led by two-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is set to take office soon, promising improved ties with India.

Pakistan has long resisted Indian involvement in Afghanistan, seeing it as a plan to encircle it, and any fresh wrangling between the rivals would add to Afghanistan's problems as the Western military withdrawal draws near.

Meanwhile, Karzai wants India to increase military aid to Afghanistan. The two countries have already been cooperating in a number of ways. India has been training small numbers of Afghan officers at its military academies for years.

And in 2011, New Delhi signed a strategic partnership with Kabul that will increase joint training once NATO troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.

Officials say a deal to buy Indian artillery and aircraft is up for discussion on this trip.

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My Comment: Growing Afghan - India ties should not surprise anyone. Afghan - Pakistan tensions have increased over the years .... from Pakistan's support of the Afghan Taliban to where the Afghan-Pak borders end and begin. The Afghans are looking for allies .... and India is a natural choice. Of course .... I doubt that Pakistan will permit Indian military forces to cross their country to enter Afghanistan.