India – Afghanistan Relations

India and Afghanistan have a strong relationship based on historical and

cultural links. The relationship is not limited to the governments in New Delhi and
Kabul, and has its foundations in the historical contacts and exchanges between the
people. In recent past, Indo-Afghan relations have been further strengthened by the
Strategic Partnership Agreement signed between the two countries in 2011. As
Afghanistan was undergoing three simultaneous political, security and economic
transitions in 2016, India had allayed its fears about its future by making a long-term
commitment to the security and development of Afghanistan.

The Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between the two sides, inter alia,
provides for assistance to help rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure and institutions,
education and technical assistance to re-build indigenous Afghan capacity in
different areas, encouraging investment in Afghanistan's natural resources, providing
duty free access to the Indian market for Afghanistan's exports support for an
Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, broad-based and inclusive process of peace and
reconciliation, and advocating the need for a sustained and long-term commitment to
Afghanistan by the international community. As the lead country for Trade,
Commerce and Investment (TCI) CBM of Heart of Asia Process, India has organised
various activities under TCI CBM including 7th Regional Technical Group (RTG) in
March 2016 and a Conference and Exhibition on “Made in Afghanistan” in July 19-
20, 2016. India successfully hosted the 6th Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference in
Amritsar in December 2016 and Conference called for immediate elimination of
terrorism to help the war-ravaged country in its political and economic transition.

After a protracted electoral process for two rounds of elections and UN

mediated audit process, a Political Agreement was signed between two leading
contenders – Dr Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah which led to the formation
of national unity government, inaugurated on 29 September 2014. The ceremony
was attended by our Vice President Dr Hamid Ansari. Our consistent signalling on
the political inclusivity and peaceful transfer of power was addressed and
appreciated by all sections of the Afghans.

There also exists a high-level political engagement with Afghanistan, which is

reflected in the large number of bilateral high-level visits. In 14 March 2015, Abdullah
Abdullah, Chief Executive of arrived in India for a three days visit. During his visit he
met with Mohammad Hamid Ansari, the Vice President of India and some other high
ranking government officials. He also participated in India Conclave Conference
organised by India Today magazine. President Dr Ashraf Ghani in April 2015 paid an
official visit to India in April 2015. During the visit, President Ghani met President of
India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee; Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi; and
External Affairs Minister Shri Sushma Swaraj. Both side discussed about the
cooperation and assistance in various sectors including the health, education,
agriculture, disaster management, power sector and electoral management. As a
result of President Ghani’s visit, India has gifted Afghanistan three Cheetal
helicopters; assistance for the annual maintenance of M/s Habibiyar School, Kabul
and Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health; USD 5 million fund to ARCS to treat
Afghan child with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) in India for 5 years; extension of
ICCR scholarship till 2020 and indicated readiness to sign a bilateral motor vehicle
pact to allow vehicles from both sides to traverse each other's countries.

The National Security Adviser of Afghanistan, Mohammad Haneef Atmar

visited India on November 8-9, 2015. During his two-day visit, the Afghan NSA
engaged in bilateral talks with the relevant Indian government authorities. The
meetings focused on cooperation in the political, security and economic areas
including the current situation in Afghanistan and the region. The Deputy Foreign
Minister of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Hekmat Khalil Karzai paid an official
visit to New Delhi from November 16 – 20, 2015. Deputy Foreign Minister Karzai
during his four day visit conducted meetings with Indian authorities to discuss a host
of issues and the state of progress in the bilateral ties between Afghanistan and
India and interacted at India based think-tanks

In 25th December 2016, Prime Minister along with a high level delegation paid
a visit to Afghanistan. During his visit he called on President Ashraf Ghani; he met
Chief Executive, Dr Abdullah and Former President Hamid Karzai. During his visit he
inaugurated the newly built Afghan Parliament; he announced 500 scholarships for
the children of the martyrs of Afghan Security Forces in school and colleges both in
Afghanistan and in India; and Prime Minister gifted four Mi25 Attack helicopter to
Afghan Air forces. During the visit, it has been decided to conduct the first Strategic
Partnership Council meeting headed by the Foreign Minister of the both country in
the first quarter of 2016 along with four joint working group meetings.

His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic
of Afghanistan (CEO) visited India from 31 January- 4 February 2016. During this
visit, he met Prime Minister on 1st February 2016 and held discussions on bilateral,
regional and global issues of mutual interest including the security situation and
peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. EAM and NSA called on CEO, on February
1 & 4, respectively. In the context of continued bilateral development cooperation,
the decision of the Government of India to approve the 3rd phase of Small
Development Projects comprising of 92 projects in Afghanistan was conveyed. An
Agreement on Exemption from Visa Requirement for Holders of Diplomatic
Passports was signed. On 3rd February, CEO addressed a joint interaction with the
three leading chambers of commerce and industry in lndia, namely ASSOCHAM, CII
and FICCI. CEO delivered the Keynote Address at the Counter Terrorism
Conference organised by India Foundation in Jaipur on February 2, where the
inaugural address was by Rashtrapatiji.

On 4 June 2016, Prime Minister visited Herat in western Afghanistan and he

along with President Ghani jointly inaugurated the Afghan-India Friendship Dam,
earlier known as Salma Dam. The completion of the dam project represents
culmination of years of hard work by about 1, 500 Indian and Afghan engineers and
other professionals in very difficult conditions. It also highlights India's continued
commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.

Later on 22 August 2016, Prime Minister jointly inaugurated through video

conferencing the restored Stor Palace in Kabul with President Ghani. During his
speech Prime Minster said the 1.25 billion Indian people will “always” stand with
Afghanistan in ensuring peace and prosperity.

President Ghani paid a working visit to India from 14-15 September 2016. The
visit provided an opportunity to continue the close and frequent consultations
between the two friendly neighbours. During the visit, Extradition Treaty, the
Agreement on cooperation in civil and commercial matters and the Memorandum of
Understanding on Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Outer Space were signed. It was
also stressed that expeditious implementation of the trilateral agreement involving
Afghanistan, India and Iran, signed in May 2016, using Chahbahar will augment
connectivity within and of the region. India also announced additional USD 1 billion
assistance for capability building in spheres such as education, health, agriculture,
skill development, empowerment of women, energy, infrastructure and strengthening
of democratic institutions of Afghanistan.

Commercial Relations

Indo-Afghan Trade and Investment

India recognizes the pre-eminence of Afghanistan as a junction of trade

routes between central, south and west Asia for 3000 years. The bilateral trade at
USD 683.02 million for 2013-14 (US$ 474.25 million export and US $ 208.77 million
import by India) and$684 million for 2014-15 ($422 million export and $ 262 million
import by India) is a modest figure going by the actual potential. However, the trade
relations can realize its true potential if the Wagah-Attari route is opened for bilateral
trade with Afghanistan. So far, the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement
(APTTA) has been restrictive in this aspect. India after Pakistan is the major export
destination of Afghanistan. One of the objectives of building Zaranj-Delaram road by
India was to boost bilateral economic relations besides offering Afghanistan another
outlet to Sea port. The successful operation of the Chabahar port in Iran could
capitalize on this road to offer a new transit route of Afghan products to India while
opening a new route for India, and the rest of the world, for trade with Central Asia.

India and Afghanistan signed a Preferential Trade Agreement in March 2003

under which India allowed substantial duty concessions, ranging from 50% to 100%,
to certain category (38 times) of Afghan dry fruits. Afghanistan in turn has allowed
reciprocal concessions to Indian products, including tea, sugar, cement and
pharmaceuticals. In November 2011, India removed basic customs duties for all
SAARC LDCs at the SAARC Summit in Male which gave all products of Afghanistan
(except alcohol and tobacco) duty free access to Indian market. Afghanistan (as
LDC) is signatory to SAFTA and is required to lower its tariffs of all goods not on its
sensitive list of 5% or less. This decade-long process helps avoid any sudden or
dramatic reductions in tariffs and eases the changes with minimal disruption to
Afghan industry. Afghanistan recently reduced its sensitive list from 1,063 tariff lines
to 850 out of roughly 6,000 total tariff lines. Only 30% of the tariff lines on
Afghanistan’s sensitive list have tariff rates above the requisite 5%. Under
Afghanistan’s sensitive list, the highest tariff rates are applied on fruits, vegetables
and nuts, basic construction materials, beverages, plants, articles of leather and
carpets. Some other items that are not produced in Afghanistan are also subject to
higher tariffs for revenue collection purposes such as tobacco, ceramic products,
perfumery, minerals and fuel.

Transit is a major bottleneck in Indo-Afghan trade due to denial of export of

Indian goods via Wagah border and delays at Karachi port. Most of the trade occurs
via Bandar Abbas port in Iran or through Dubai. Earlier Banks/Insurance companies
were refusing to provide their services via Bandar Abbas port due to US sanctions
but after lifting of sanctions now the situation may change. Many Indian companies
are engaged in the infrastructural development of Afghanistan and are contributing in
the development of the country. During the visit of President Ghani to India in
September 2016, to further deepen the commercial engagement, Prime Minister
proposed to supply world class and easily affordable medicines from India and
cooperation in solar energy through mutually agreed instruments. Both the countries
are now working on air corridor to increase the trade and commerce

In the recent times, there are quite a number of visits by business delegations
of both the countries to each other’s country. The important Afghan/Indian
Trade/Business delegations that visited India/Afghanistan in the recent timesare:

9thMP Expo, 29-31, January 2016: 22 members from KCCI participated.

30th Surajkund Mela 1-15 Feb 2016: Six Afghan participants have been
nominated by the Mission. The event is being supported by SAARC Division of MEA.

Conference and Exhibition on “Made in Afghanistan” in July 19-20, 2016.

India-Afghan Culture Relations

Afghanistan has been an important trading and craft center for over 2000 years
connecting the civilizations of Persia, Central Asia with India. However, over 3
decades of war have undermined Afghanistan’s unique traditions of art and
architecture. Today, the biggest challenge for Afghanistan is to rediscover and
sustain its ancient art and architectural illegal opium trade and providing employment
to the most vulnerable communities, particularly women and the rural people. India
and Afghanistan share centuries old cultural heritage with deep rooted linkages in
the field of music, arts, architecture, language and cuisine.

In the field of music, in particular, in the old days, most Afghan musicians were
trained in the Patiala Gharana. Today, Indian films, songs and TV serials are hugely
popular with the masses, contributing significantly to the popularization of Hindi and
familiarization of the populace with Indian socio -cultural value system. TV serials
like Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kasauti Jindagi Ki, Kum Kum and Kahani Ghar Ghar
Ki, Saare-ga-ma-pa, Pratigya, Utran have been dubbed in Dari language. They have
the highest overall viewership and shown on prime time slots, both on the national as
well as private TV Channels. As part of India’s restructuring programme for
Afghanistan, India has aimed to take up projects that will render Afghanistan's
cultural heritage sustainable. The Indian cultural centre has also been working
towards building o or shared cultural heritage.
Indian Diaspora in Afghanistan
The Mission maintains a database on Indians staying in Afghanistan, though
many Indians don’t register with the Mission. Presently, there are estimated to be
about 3500 Indians in the country, though only about 850 are registered with the
Mission. Most of the Indian Diaspora are engaged as professionals in Banks, IT
firms, Construction companies, Hospitals, NGOs, Telecom companies, Security
companies, Universities, Govt. of India sponsored projects, Govt. of Afghanistan and
UN Missions. The Mission interacts closely with the Indian citizens, helping them to
resolve their problems, and routinely invite them to attend National & Embassy
functions. The prominent Indian companies doing businesses in Afghanistan are:

(1) KEC – Electrical Transmission Lines

(2) Phoenix – Consultancy in Electrical Transmission
(3) AIPL – Establishment of Hydro Power Project in Hilmand Province
(4) WAPCOS – Salma Dam
(5) ANGELIQUE International – Salma Dam and other Power project
(6) APTECH – Computer & Management Education

(7) GAMMON INDIA – Power Transmission Line & Power Sub-stations

(8) KPTL – Power Transmission Line
(10) ANAAR GROUP (AIR INDIA GSA)
(11) Spice Jet
Useful Resources:

Embassy of India, Kabul website:

http://eoi.gov.in/kabul/
Embassy of India, Kabul Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/IndiaInAfghanistan
Embassy of India, Kabul Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/IndianEmbKabul

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December 2016