India to pledge Afghanistan more aid

[Admin Khan]

NEW DELHI (PAN): Top Indian officials on Wednesday confirmed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was planning to visit Afghanistan in coming days, but declined to provide precise dates for security concerns.
However, think tanks in India and USA see the imminent trip a good opportunity for India to help stabilise the war-ravaged nation and gather more information on terrorism, especially after the Osama episode that put Pakistan in a spot over its commitment to fight terror on its soil.
Officials in New Delhi say Singh will travel to Afghanistan within a few days, next week, to strengthen the bilateral and strategic ties. Analysts feel the visit assumes significance after the killing of Osama in a safe house in Pakistan’s garrison town of Abbottabad by the US Navy Seals and CIA operatives.
The May 2 killing of A Qaeda leader in Pakistan and its impact on the wider fight against terrorism in the area would also be a focus of discussions, officials said. Singh had visited Afghanistan as the Prime Minister in 2005.
India's mainstream dailies like Indian Express say Singh will pledge more aid to Afghanistan and might make some big-ticket announcements during his visit.
New Delhi was planning to offer an additional 100 million dollars of aid during the trip to help rebuild Afghanistan, the Hindustan Times reported. The money would mostly go for public institutions, it said, citing a senior official.
Indiais one of the leading donors in Afghanistan, spending about 1.3 billion dollars toward rebuilding the country since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban regime.
Indian-funded projects include roads, railways, schools and hospitals. India is also building Kabul's new parliament.
Experts say India has reasons to be worried over a US withdrawal from Afghanistan in the wake of Osama’s killing and leaving the nation exposed to domination by Pakistan-nourished Taliban terrorists who can target India.
“This visit was scheduled before but now it will be a good opportunity to exchange notes on terrorism and terrorists. India can elicit more information on the ground situation in the tribal regions,” says B Raman, former chief of India’s spy agency, the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing).
“India can gather more information on the Pashtun terrorism. It is something on which only Afghanistan can enrich India,” he said, adding that the killing of Osama bin Laden surely will have a bearing on the Taliban.
According to Dr. Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management, the visit or any visit of Indian prime minister to Afghanistan should not be seen only through the prism of Pakistan or terrorism alone.
“Our ties are historical. India wants to see a stable Afghanistan. Every survey has showed that Afghanistan loves India. So it is not that India wants to gain anything from there, but wants to see that the asset that we have from the love of Afghanistan for India is retained"." The stability in the region is only thing India hopes for,” he says.
According to DeWayne P. Frazier, associate professor of political science in Campbellsville University in USA, India’s sphere of influence of in Afghanistan and the visit of Manmohan Singh will have a stabilizing effect.
“A strong and vibrant Afghanistan with a growing middle class benefits the entire region. By engaging the Afghan people through economic development, India is helping stabilising the region,” Frazier says.
“Unfortunately, for many years the main cash crop in Afghanistan has been opium and no economy can be based on illegal activity,” he says, holding that India can help the war-torn nation with more economic activity.
According to various estimates, about 4,000 Indians are engaged in various construction activities and medical facilities in Afghanistan.
The Taliban had carried out several attacks on Indians and Indian interests in Afghanistan in the past years, including an attack on its embassy in Kabul in 2008.

India to pledge Afghanistan more aid | Pajhwok Afghan News

[emkhan]

khushala shay, nor khushala shay
da india na imdaad rarawaan dai.

[khashayar]

Lol

[faye]

i feel very sad for afghanistan. it is either being ripped to shreds or being mended by others, who no doubt, have an agenda.
i read that there is a shortage of opium based pain killers, especially in the third world countries, even afghanistan! where is the development like legal growing of opium for medical purposes? hemp is also used now for clothing. these are things that afghanistan has been expert at growing for hundreds of years. these thing should be developed so that afghanistan has an export industry instead of having to be dependent on others.

[sthek]

india announce additional 500 million dollar package

source

[faye]

i wonder what the indians living in the streets think about that?

[Espresso]

i wonder what the indians living in the streets think about that?

instead you should be wondering what the growing number of unemployed pakistanis thinks about the lavish life of the pakistani army after OBL was caught from one the home's there trust me mate its the need of the hour

a toast to the to the indo-afghan friendship

“A strong and vibrant Afghanistan with a growing middle class benefits the entire region : india

YouTube - PALAY KHAN- Mere sanm tera

[faye]

why should i be wondering that instead? i despise corrupt systems anywhere but i was in india 2 years ago and saw what is there. so those people might have a bitch about india doing that. i don't begrudge afghanistan but how much of this money will reach them and not go into the pockets of their stinking corrupt politicians, their siblings or whoever?

[sthek]

^^
we have separate budget for foreign ,internal matters.india does have it's poverty but any means it's no poor country,there are enough funds to remove it's poverty if corruption can be avoided,also all the top richest people in asia come from india,dunno when you have visited india,it's a big country,majority of population are middle class

[Espresso]

why should i be wondering that instead?

Coz Thats What's Making The"HEADLINES" These Day's

You Should Keep Yourself Updated

[sthek]

also 500 million usd is nothing when india spends around 30-50 billion usd per year on defence, another billion on space
also huge amount for it's new international standard airports in delhi , plus huge expenditure on infra structure for it's top cities, when no one raises issue on this matters,how do you expect people to rise issue on mere 500 dollar aid.

also all this money india spends is its own, doesn't get any donation unlike some other countries

[BarakzaiAbdali]

why should i be wondering that instead? i despise corrupt systems anywhere but i was in india 2 years ago and saw what is there. so those people might have a bitch about india doing that. i don't begrudge afghanistan but how much of this money will reach them and not go into the pockets of their stinking corrupt politicians, their siblings or whoever?

Well faye, its because elite emigres that generally fled during the USSR war have found their cashcow. They want to continue to pump American, Indian, Iranian, Japanese, insert whoever else's money into their pockets.

Generally, these folks became bigger failures in the West or, like Mr Khalid Hosseini, made money off being Afghan, or trying to lobby the US to intervene militarily in Afghanistan (the Karzais). Otherwise, they were failures in the West, from Mr. Wardak to Mr. Karzai to Mr. Arsalaan to Mr. Wesa to Mr. Ghani to Mr. Farnood.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...704665,00.html

"As the Washington Post has discovered, these properties are often only registered under the names of the individuals issuing the loans, such as Sherkhan Farnood, the founder and chairman of Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest private bank, who was also a key supporter of President Karzai during his 2009 re-election campaign. Like many of his clients, Farnood now spends the majority of his time in Dubai. And among the 16 shareholders in his bank are Mahmoud Karzai, the president's business-minded older brother, and Haseen Fahim, the brother of Afghan Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim."

Yet, despite their glaring failures, these folks publicly touted themselves as the savior technocrats that would bring western economic systems and business efficiency to Afghanistan. The US would have been wise to consider that by creating the Dream Team of inept leadership, they were likely to derive failing and corrupt results on levels hitherto unseen. Their real intention was to re-etablish oligarchy and school the rural Afghan that had never left in what is supposedly best for him. Suddenly, they forgot that they are Kipling's "little brown brother" and decided that they would teach "their little brown brothers" back home all the chicanery that they had learned here.

[Espresso]

Press Trust of India, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Kabul, May 13, 2011
First Published: 00:01 IST(13/5/2011)
Last Updated: 00:03 IST(13/5/2011)



Karzai welcomes PM to his ‘second home’


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday announced a fresh aid package of $500 million for Afghanistan with focus on social sector, agriculture, capacity building and infrastructure projects.
“We have decided to make a fresh commitment valued at approximately $500 million over the next few years,” he said at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai here after their talks.
India already has a commitment of $1.5 billion in Afghanistan.
The new package will consist of specific projects and schemes and other initiatives that will be developed in consultation with the Afghan government, Singh said.
Giving a broad outline, he said India would increase its focus on the social sector, agriculture, capacity building, access to Indian market and continue with its infrastructure projects.
Of the new aid package, $100 million will be for the third phase of India’s programme of small development projects, over and above the previous pledge of $20 million.
The package will also include donation of 1,000 buses for Kabul and other municipalities with provision for maintenance support, training and infrastructure.
‘Jalalabad plot worrisome’
The PM described reports of Indian consulate general being a terror plot target in Jalalabad as worrisome. “If what you have stated is true, well it is worrisome,” Singh said when asked to comment on the plot.



http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryP...nt/696792.aspx
© Copyright 2010 Hindustan Times

[Espresso]

Press Trust Of India

Kabul, May 12, 2011
First Published: 22:27 IST(12/5/2011)
Last Updated: 22:29 IST(12/5/2011)



India-Afghan elevates ties to strategic level


Aiming to strengthen their cooperation in the areas of security and combating terrorism, India and Afghanistan today elevated their bilateral ties to a strategic partnership, which they affirmed was not directed against any other State or group of States.
After the "productive and constructive" discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hamid Karzai which covered issues like terrorism, recent developments in the region especially last week's killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in Pakistan, both the leaders issued a joint declaration.
"The two sides affirmed that their Strategic Partnership was not directed against any other State or group of States," the declaration said. They also underlined their shared commitment to combating terrorism that threatens both countries as well as the region and the world as a whole.
"The two sides also agreed that an important part of their Strategic Partnership would be cooperation in the area of security, law enforcement and justice, including an enhanced focus on cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, organised crime, and illegal trafficking in narcotics, and money-laundering," the declaration said. Agreeing to impart a long term commitment to their multifaceted bilateral ties and to actively develop them in the years ahead, India and Afghanistan confirmed their adherence to the common ideals of peace, democracy, inclusive development, rule of law, non-violence, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The declaration said that the Strategic Partnership between the two countries is based upon the principles of sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity of States, non-interference in their internal affairs, mutual respect and mutual benefit. The two leaders shared their vision of Afghanistan as an independent, democratic, stable and prosperous country Reaffirming their commitment to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, India and Afghanistan decided to establish a Strategic Partnership covering all areas of mutual interest.
Based on mutual understanding and long term trust in each other, this partnership envisages the elevation of their multifaceted ties to a higher level, both in the bilateral field and in the international arena. The two sides decided to hold follow up discussions in the near future towards preparation of a Strategic Partnership document between the two countries which will be implemented under the framework of a Partnership Council.



http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryP...nt/696766.aspx
© Copyright 2010 Hindustan Times

[faye]

Coz Thats What's Making The"HEADLINES" These Day's

You Should Keep Yourself Updated

are you some kinda fascist?
darling, you wonder about what you want to wonder about, i will wonder about what i want to wonder about