India’s Bilateral Relations with Afghanistan

India and Afghanistan have a strong relationship based on historical and cultural links. The relationship is not limited to the governments in New Delhi and Kabul, but has its foundations in the historical contacts and exchanges between the people.

Recent Developments

  • India and Afghanistan have agreed to launch a New Development Partnership through which the countries will jointly implement 116 “high impact” development projects across Afghanistan.
  • India will aid Afghanistan in infrastructural projects such as constructing dams, roads, and power transmission lines, among other things.
  • India and Afghanistan signed a Motor Vehicles Agreement for the regulation of passenger, personal and cargo vehicular traffic, which would provide the necessary infrastructure for much-needed overland transit.
  • India will also help build affordable housing for refugees.
  • Along with Afghanistan’s Water Department, India will help in constructing the Shahtoot dam.
  • Apart from dams, India will help in building a strong water supply network for Charikar city.
  • India is helping Afghanistan construct a 218-km long road from Zaranj to Delaram in order to facilitate movement of goods and services to the Iranian border.
  • The construction of a 220kV DC transmission line and a 220/110/20 kV sub-station at Chimtala will also be done with India’s help.
  • India will assist in upgrading telephone exchanges in 11 of Afghanistan’s provinces and expanding its national TV network.

India’s Bilateral Relations with Afghanistan

In the recent past, India-Afghanistan relations have been further strengthened by the Strategic Partnership Agreement, which was signed between the two countries in October 2011. SPA provides for assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan’s infrastructure and institutions, education and technical assistance to rebuild indigenous Afghan capacity in different areas.

Afghan-India Friendship Dam

  • On 4th June, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Herat in western Afghanistan and he along with President Ashraf Ghani jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam.
  • The completion of the dam project represents culmination of years of hard work by about 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions.
  • Since this project is funded and constructed by the Government of India as a part of the Indian aid project, the Afghan cabinet renamed the Salma Dam to the Afghan-India Friendship Dam in a gesture of gratitude to strengthen relations between the two countries.

New Afghan Parliament Built by India

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December, 2015 inaugurated the parliament building in Kabul, which was built by India.
  • The parliament building, that was started in 2009 has missed its completion deadlines at least 3 times since 2011, and has gone over-budget by double the original costing of $45 million.

Bilateral Trade

  • The bilateral trade for the year 2017-18 was USD 1 billion approx and has immense potential to be expanded further.
  • However, the trade relations will realize its true potential once the Wagah-Attari route is opened for bilateral trade. So far, the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) has been restrictive in this aspect.
  • Further the construction of Zaranj-Delaram road was done to boost bilateral economic relations besides offering Afghanistan another outlet to a seaport.

Dedicated Air Cargo Corridor

  • In 2016, India and Afghanistan launched an air-freight corridor in an attempt to provide greater access for Afghan goods to the Indian market.
  • The Air Corridor has ensured free movement of freight despite the barriers put in place due to the denial of transit by Pakistan. During the Strategic Partnership Council meeting it was decided to further strengthen the corridor and expand it to other cities in India. Over 1000 tonnes of cargo has already been transported through air Corridor since its inauguration.

Chabahar Port: A New Trade Route to Afghanistan

  • The Chabahar port is now being considered as a gateway to golden opportunities for trade by India, Iran, and Afghanistan with central Asian countries, besides ramping up trade among the three countries in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi.
  • Indian firm Ircon is building a railway infrastructure from Chabahar. Earlier, India shipped 1.1 million tons of wheat to Afghanistan from the western seaport of Kandla (Now Deendayal Por‑t) on October 29, 2017.
  • The Government of India took over the operations of a part of Shahid Beheshti Port, Chabahar during the Chabahar Trilateral Agreement meeting held on December, 2018. The first vessel berthed at the terminal on 30th December, 2018.

2nd Annual India-Afghanistan International Trade and Investment Show

On 12-15 September 2018, the second annual India-Afghanistan International Trade and Investment Show was held in Mumbai under the aegis of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Government of India. Around 200 Afghan businesses, 1,200 Indian and 100 international firms participated in the event.

Heart of Asia Conference

The 6th Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference was held at Amritsar, Punjab, India from December 3-4, 2016. The Conference in Amritsar brought together 14 Eurasian countries, including India, China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan, and representatives of 17 supporting nations led by the US and the European Union. It reviewed their efforts to deal with the threats posed to regional peace and security by developments in Afghanistan.

About Heart of Asia

  • The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process (HoA) was founded in November 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey, with the objective of creating a platform for bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan.
  • It consists of 15 participating countries, 16 supporting countries and 13 supporting regional and international organisations.
  • While Afghanistan is the permanent chair, the co-chair continues to change among the participating countries (Turkey holds the current co-chair).

Cultural Relations

Afghanistan has been an important trading and craft centre for over 2000 years connecting the civilizations of Persia, Central Asia with India. However, over 3 decades of war have undermined Afghanistan’s unique traditions of art and architecture.

  • On December 2018, ‘Awayee Band-e-Amir’ - a folk musical troupe from Bamiyan Province of Afghanistan visited India for the 5th International Folk Music and Dance Festival organised by ICCR at New Delhi. The group also performed at Lucknow, Bhopal and Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi during their 10 day long visit to India.
  • The 11th Board Meeting of the India Afghanistan Foundation was held on 24 December 2018 at the Delhi Chapter. The Board reviewed the working of the Foundation and looked into new proposals from both the Chapters.

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