Strategic and Economic Importance of Afghanistan for India

Strategically, Afghanistan is important for India because of its dream of accessing the Central Asian market and these ties become stronger after the incident of 9/11. India has enormous security stakes in the stability of Afghanistan. As an emerging power, it cannot remain confined to South Asia and a peaceful Afghanistan is good for Indian trade and energy security. Having this background, the present paper focuses on the Strategic and Economic importance of Afghanistan for India and further highlights India‟s present role in making Peace and Stability in Afghanistan. India has a longstanding cultural, historical and economic association with Afghanistan. Indian military‟s non-involvement throughout Afghanistan‟s troubled past and the fact that the two countries do not share a common boundary also helps. As an important member of SAARC, India‟s influence in the Peace talks would have been instrumental in establishing the objectives of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement. It wants to retain Afghanistan as a friendly state from which it has the capacity to monitor Pakistan and even, wherever possible, asserts to influence activities in Pakistan. India is keenly interested in developing a significant partnership with Afghanistan. So, due to Strategic and security concerns, the India-Afghanistan cordial relations promote the interests of both the nations. And this paper highlights the various challenges that India is facing in Afghanistan to shape the regional security architecture to prevent the conflict dynamics and tries to play a proactive role rather than reacting to the evolving situation.