India signs historic pact with Afghanistan; to train, equip Afghan security

India came out of its Afghan closet this evening, when it promised Afghan President Hamid Karzai it would assist in the “training, equipping and capacity building programmes for Afghan national security forces”.

The line, tucked away inside the strategic partnership document signed by Karzai and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is significant because it enhances India's role in the Af-Pak region by several notches, that too at Afghanistan's request.

While Delhi has been training Afghan police and even army jawans in recent years, these have been in small numbers and very much behind a cloak of reticence.

But 10 years after US forces threw out the Taliban from Kabul, Delhi seems to have finally emerged from its reticence, by promising to deliver what Afghanistan wants.

This, combined with the $2-billion aid that Delhi has already promised during the PM's recent visit to Kabul, makes India one of the biggest donors in Afghanistan.
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