Afghanistan Vice-President Mohammad Karim Khalili, who is coming on a three-day visit to India, is expected to urge the government to help strengthen the Afghan military through an enhanced pact on weaponry, as the country gears up for a transition with the departure of international troops from there in 2014 onwards. He is also going to push for more Indian investments in Afghanistan in a meeting with India Inc.
Khalili, who is arriving here on Tuesday, is to have a meeting with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, where both sides would discuss all issues, from counter-terrorism to trade. The Afghanistan vice-president’s visit comes at a time when India is seeing a major flaring in cease-fire violations with Pakistan.
Khalili’s visit is three months after Afghan president Hamid Karzai came here to receive an honorary doctorate from an Indian university. During his visit here, Karzai is understood to have pushed for an arms deal with India under the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA).
“This visit is going to be mainly focused on enhanced military cooperation,” a senior official told Business Standard.
Under the SPA, Afghanistan intends to buy military weaponry from India such as aircraft, missiles and field-guns. Both countries signed the deal in October 2011, under which India had been supplying non-lethal defence equipment to Afghanistan that includes communication devices and transport equipment.
On Wednesday, Khalili is meeting President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Prior to meeting the prime minister, Khalili is going to have a meeting with the captains of Indian industry in which he is going to elaborate on the improved investment scenario in the war-ravaged country.
“Afghanistan is now one of the top countries of the world in terms of investments. Indian industry already has much investment there but the vice president is expected to make them aware of the current developments and shed some light on the improved business environment there,” the spokesperson of the Afghan embassy said.
Indian steel and mining companies have been queuing up there ever since the country threw open its vast reserves of minerals for exploration.
Khalili would be leaving on Thursday morning after attending a conference on ‘A regional compact for Afghanistan’, organised by the Delhi Policy Group.
