Tag Archives: Afghan National Army

The first sentence of an interim report released yesterday on the collapse of the Afghan military concludes that “the single most important factor in the [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces’] collapse in August 2021 was the U.S. decision to withdraw military forces and contractors from Afghanistan through signing the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February 2020.” Reuters adopted this sentence in its headline covering …

India can be a useful ally to the Afghan government. It cannot be a substitute for the United States. Its best chance for influencing Afghanistan’s trajectory lies in a close partnership with Washington in which the US provides the military support necessary to ensure the survival of the Afghan government and eventually brings the insurgency to the negotiating table. But in the broader picture, New Delhi’s margins of maneuver are slowly but surely diminishing. Karzai needs to take realities into account when he next makes political calculations.

China has been attempting to shape a non-Western security grouping to counterbalance NATO and allow it more room for military action in Asia. The SCO, often dubbed the Asian NATO, has been dominated by Russia and China. Expanding the SCO is imperative to securing the Central Asian gas pipelines, many of which run through Chinese territory and are threatened by insurgencies that compromise their construction.

New Delhi’s delusion that taking strong measures to protect its interests in Afghanistan will lead to war in South Asia will cost this country dear.