US embassy cable - 05NEWDELHI3746

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 003746 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/17/2015 
TAGS: PREL, EAID, SNAR, IN, IR, PK, AF, India-Afghanistan 
SUBJECT: AFGHANS AND INDIANS ENCOURAGED BY BILATERAL 
RELATIONSHIP 
 
REF: NEW DELHI 1521 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Geoff Pyatt, for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) 
 
1.  (C) Summary: Afghan Ambassador to India Khalili expressed 
strong appreciation for Indian assistance to his country in a 
May 17 meeting with PolCouns and Poloff, and told us that PM 
Manmohan Singh will visit Kabul in late June.  In Khalili's 
view, the GOI welcomes Afghanistan's strategic partnership 
with the US as a positive development for Indian interests. 
MEA Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) Dilip Sinha 
agreed that the US presence in Afghanistan is necessary, but 
cautioned that the GOI hopes to see a gradual effort to 
increase ANA capabilities and reduce the international 
security footprint in Afghanistan.  Indian community 
development assistance in poppy-growing areas is on track, 
but the GOI is concerned about security of Indian workers. 
End Summary. 
 
Positive Indian Influence in Afghanistan 
---------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) Recently returned to New Delhi after six weeks in 
Afghanistan, Khalili was "very encouraged" by the progress he 
witnessed there, both in development and political stability. 
 He praised Indian assistance efforts in Afghanistan, noting 
that the aid projects, although sometimes slow, have earned 
the goodwill of the Afghan people.  Khalili contrasted the 
positive attitude toward Indians with the Afghans' distrust 
of Pakistan, commenting that Pakistan could do more than 
India to assist Afghanistan but the population would still be 
skeptical. 
 
3.  (SBU) "Everyone in Kabul" was excited by the Pul-i-Khumri 
electric transmission line project, Khalili said, including 
the Minister of Energy Ismael Khan.  Although the GOA had 
been disappointed to discover that completion was not 
expected for two years, "everyone is keen to see it done," 
and other GOA Ministries (including the Ministry of Defense) 
had pledged assistance to support the project in the 
difficult mountainous terrain.  Khalili reported that both 
Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Rakesh Sood and MEA Joint 
Secretary Dilip Sinha had assured him of India's intention to 
 
SIPDIS 
complete the line as soon as possible. 
 
4.  (C) Although not yet publicly announced, Indian PM 
Manmohan Singh will visit Afghanistan in late June, following 
Afghan FM Abdullah's trip to New Delhi on June 10, Khalili 
told us, linking the visits to India's sincere commitment to 
Afghan reconstruction.  Khalili predicted that the Indian PM 
will stop in Kabul and possibly Kandahar on his trip, but 
MEA's Dilip Sinha indicated that the governments have not yet 
decided the details.  Overall, the GOI is very committed to 
playing a positive role in Afghan reconstruction, but 
bureaucratic obstacles retard its good intentions, Khalili 
stated.  He reported that President Karzai has raised with 
Pakistan the possibility of transit rights for Indian 
humanitarian goods, but was skeptical that Islamabad would 
yield on this issue for now. 
 
India Appreciates American Partnership 
-------------------------------------- 
 
5.  (C) According to Khalili, his Indian interlocutors have 
welcomed President Karzai's recently announced intention to 
seek a long-term "strategic partnership" with the US. 
Khalili reported that Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood had told 
him that close ties between the US and Afghanistan would 
leave less room for Pakistani and Iranian influence, which 
would be useful for both Afghanistan and India.  MEA J/S 
Sinha echoed this theme in a May 18 meeting with PolCouns and 
Poloff, observing that the GOI recognizes the need for the 
international community, including the US, to provide 
security in Afghanistan.  That being said, he expressed hope 
that eventually Afghan forces would replace international 
troops as they withdraw their presence to small cantonments. 
 
Riots and Security 
------------------ 
 
6.  (C) MEA's Sinha sympathized with the "sensitive" 
situation of US troops in Afghanistan, and opined that the 
mix of a foreign presence, deep-seated religious passions, 
and radical troublemakers kept the potential for anti-Western 
demonstrations high.  Echoing Khalili's comments, he stated 
that India was working hard to maintain a positive public 
image in Afghanistan, noting that the demonstrations included 
nothing that was anti-Indian, but that "forces" in 
Afghanistan were keen to divert attention from India's 
cooperative assistance efforts and turn opinion against 
India.  If that happened, he worried, Indian assistance 
workers in Afghanistan would be endangered. 
 
7.  (C) Sinha was sympathetic about the Pakistani dilemma in 
Afghanistan, speculating that anti-Pakistan demonstrations 
had been stirred up by tribal elements opposed to Musharraf's 
crackdown on radical Islamists at home.  This generous 
interpretation was completely devoid of the zero-sum 
arguments that characterized past GOI assessments of the GOP 
role in Afghanistan. 
 
8.  (C) Sinha disagreed strongly with attempts to 
"rehabilitate" former Taliban, arguing that "Taliban are by 
definition extremists," as bad as any regime in history. 
Conceding that a "witch hunt" for low-level former Taliban 
would be excessive, he firmly reiterated his opposition to 
including "hard core" Taliban in the government, comparing 
this to rehabilitation of German Nazis or representatives of 
the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. 
 
Moving Ahead on Community Development 
------------------------------------- 
 
9.  (C) The GOI has identified two districts in which it will 
implement a pilot program to support alternative sources of 
income for poppy farmers (reftel), Sinha reported, and teams 
will soon visit Afghanistan to prepare for implementation. 
The districts selected were not "hard-core" opium production 
areas, but had a good chance for success at eradicating poppy 
cultivation.  The programs would help poppy farmers switch to 
other profitable agricultural products with which Indians had 
experience in cultivation (for instance in Punjab), and also 
train them in skills for cottage industry manufacturing, 
providing small items for local needs without requiring large 
scale infrastructure of electricity or roads for market 
access.  Sinha emphasized that civilian staff operating out 
of the Indian consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad, not 
military personnel, would run the programs and therefore a 
secure operating environment and goodwill toward India were 
essential to their success. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
10.  (C) Both the Afghan Ambassador and the Indian MEA are 
pleased with their growing ties, particularly in development 
assistance.  We should see more on this theme if Manmohan 
Singh visits Kabul in June.  Both the MEA and the Afghans 
tell us that such a visit would be the first by an Indian 
leader in many decades, but the timing may succumb to 
Manmohan Singh's busy travel calendar, including a mid-July 
trip to Washington.  While Khalili claimed to be more 
optimistic than ever about Afghanistan's prospects for 
stability, Sinha was much more concerned about extremists' 
potential to cause violence and disrupt GOI development 
programs.  Although Sinha stopped short of endorsing a 
US-Afghanistan strategic partnership, he did express 
satisfaction with the effect of the US presence there. 
BLAKE