NEIGHBOURHOOD
Kabul Turning into Indian Garrison: Ex-CIA Official
WASHINGTON: PAKISTAN believes Afghanistan is developing into an Indian garrison and has been nurturing groups like the Taliban and LeT
over the years to counter it, a key US Senate Committee was told. "I am not making any accusations against any given country in the region. All of them are looking out for their vital interests. But India is becoming involved in Afghanistan to an extent that the Pakistanis consider Afghanistan as developing into an Indian garrison," Milt Bearden, ex-CIA Station Chief in Islamabad, told Senators during a hearing. "This is not hysteria. This is a real concern," he said in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the hearing on ‘Afghanistan’s Impact on Pakistan. He also noted that China has its own interest in the region and has taken a 25 percent share of a huge copper operation in Afghanistan. "They’re building a major port in Pakistan at Gwadar," he added. "Meanwhile, the Indians, working with the Iranians, are doing the same thing across – in Iran on the Arabian Sea, building a major port. You have China getting a naval anchor on the Arabian Sea in Pakistan, India and Iran doing exactly the same thing across the border," Bearden said. He suggested the US use its stewardship of Afghanistan to bring about some order in the regional resource-driven, 21st century-grade game, a recreation of a Silk Route. "But we’re not right now involved in being able to manage that." Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, termed it as a "very cogent, thoughtful oversight," which he said will prompt a number of questions. Steve Coll, President of the New America Foundation, said, "The Pakistan military’s tolerance of the Taliban historically, and I think currently, and similar groups, is rooted in the belief that Pakistan requires unconventional forces, in addition to a nuclear deterrent, to offset India’s conventional military and industrial superiority."
Where it gets complicated is that, he argued, there are sections of Pakistani military and even the civilian elite who also fear that the US may be collaborating with India, naively or deliberately, to weaken Pakistan by supporting governments in Kabul that are at best hostile to Pakistani interests, and at worst facilitating what some imagine to be Indian efforts to destabilize, disarm or even destroy the Pakistani state"…Pakistani security services and their leaders have seen an Indian hand in Kabul since the days of soviet invasion," Coll said.
WASHINGTON: PAKISTAN believes Afghanistan is developing into an Indian garrison and has been nurturing groups like the Taliban and LeT
over the years to counter it, a key US Senate Committee was told. "I am not making any accusations against any given country in the region. All of them are looking out for their vital interests. But India is becoming involved in Afghanistan to an extent that the Pakistanis consider Afghanistan as developing into an Indian garrison," Milt Bearden, ex-CIA Station Chief in Islamabad, told Senators during a hearing. "This is not hysteria. This is a real concern," he said in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the hearing on ‘Afghanistan’s Impact on Pakistan. He also noted that China has its own interest in the region and has taken a 25 percent share of a huge copper operation in Afghanistan. "They’re building a major port in Pakistan at Gwadar," he added. "Meanwhile, the Indians, working with the Iranians, are doing the same thing across – in Iran on the Arabian Sea, building a major port. You have China getting a naval anchor on the Arabian Sea in Pakistan, India and Iran doing exactly the same thing across the border," Bearden said. He suggested the US use its stewardship of Afghanistan to bring about some order in the regional resource-driven, 21st century-grade game, a recreation of a Silk Route. "But we’re not right now involved in being able to manage that." Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, termed it as a "very cogent, thoughtful oversight," which he said will prompt a number of questions. Steve Coll, President of the New America Foundation, said, "The Pakistan military’s tolerance of the Taliban historically, and I think currently, and similar groups, is rooted in the belief that Pakistan requires unconventional forces, in addition to a nuclear deterrent, to offset India’s conventional military and industrial superiority."Where it gets complicated is that, he argued, there are sections of Pakistani military and even the civilian elite who also fear that the US may be collaborating with India, naively or deliberately, to weaken Pakistan by supporting governments in Kabul that are at best hostile to Pakistani interests, and at worst facilitating what some imagine to be Indian efforts to destabilize, disarm or even destroy the Pakistani state"…Pakistani security services and their leaders have seen an Indian hand in Kabul since the days of soviet invasion," Coll said.
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