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India has a major role to play in Afghanistan: Brown

26 January 2010 01:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ayaz Abdulla â€“ APA. British PM Gordon Brown believes India has a major role to play in Afghanistan, APA reports quoting The Times Of India. Replying to a question at a press conference at 10 Downing Street, the office and residence of the UKâ€™s head of government, ahead of Thursdayâ€™s Afghanistan Conference, he told TOI: "I believe that the neighbors of Afghanistan should come together to help sustain an infant democracy like Afghanistan. India has a big role to play."
In saying neighbors should come together, there was probably a hint to Pakistan that it should stop dragging its feet on an enhanced role for India in Afghanistan. Islamabad has been rather uncomfortable about Indiaâ€™s $1.3 billion aid to its western neighbor and the work India is engaged in â€” much lauded by the British government â€” in the realms of reconstruction and developing infrastructure in Afghanistan, not to mention the re-opening of Indian consulates in that country. Indiaâ€™s growing popularity in Afghanistan, as a result, has made Pakistan increasingly insecure.
Pakistanâ€™s despondency been reflected in its ambivalence towards the Afghan Taliban, which it sees as an asset if and when western troops pull out of Afghanistan, which, according to US President Barack Obama, will begin in August 2011. The Afghan Taliban was created and nurtured by Pakistanâ€™s Inter-Services Intelligence, which continues to maintain links with it, much to the irritation of the western military alliance fighting them.
Brown, however, signaled that there were elements within the Afghan Taliban, who were mercenaries. He saw scope in co-opting them back into the mainstream. He said he awaits Hamid Karzaiâ€™s proposal on this as well as "anti-corruption measures" at the Afghanistan Conference, which will be co-chaired by the two and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.