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1 May 2015

India should overcome hesitation to play greater role in Afghanistan

Britta Petersen
27 April 2015

There is a certain - surprising - amount of unease ahead of the visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to New Delhi. India has been consistently among the largest donor nations in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 and is one of the most popular partners in the country. With $2 billion of development aid pledged last year and an even larger soft power through Bollywood movies, India is surely a champion of hearts for most of the people on the western side of the Hindukush.

This raises the question why analysts and policymakers in India alike are worried, that their country could lose out on the latest developments in Afghanistan? The main reason seems that with the change of government in Kabul last year, a new sound keeps emanating from the Afghan capital. But it would be a mistake to interpret it as directed against India.

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