Afghan President Ghani starts‘business visit’ on Sept 13

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani will hold a crucial bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 15 that will see unfurling of enhanced trade and defence ties between the neighbours.

Ghani, who will arrive here for a three-day work visit on September 13, will focus mostly on issues related to business and commerce. He had last visited India in April 2015.

India is expected to offer tariff-free access to select agricultural goods from Afghanistan. This may include fruits and certain kind of nuts. India already gives duty-free access to a number of Afghan goods, sources told BusinessLine .

India is also been working with the Afghan government to develop direct trade routes between the two countries through the establishment of transit routes. This is mainly to bypass Pakistan, which has been acting as a major hurdle in seamless transit of goods between India and Afghanistan from the Wagah border.

Discussions on the progress made in the trilateral agreement involving Afghanistan, India and Iran will also be held. Through Afghanistan, India hopes to have access to the Central Asian markets.

India had been providing non-lethal military support to Afghanistan for decades now even though the latter has been demanding lethal military weapons to fight Taliban and other terrorist outfits. Till 2014, India had avoided grant of lethal defence equipment keeping in mind the geopolitical balance.

However, under the present government, the strategy has undergone a substantial change. In April last year, India provided three multi-role Cheetal helicopters to Afghanistan. This was followed by three Mi-25 attack helicopters to the Afghan Air Force in December.

During the upcoming visit, India might gift more attack helicopters. Earlier this month, Chief of Afghan Army General Qadam Shah Shahim was in India with a wish-list of defence items that included Mi-25 helicopters and small combat choppers, sources said.

India is working closely with the US in supporting the Afghan government with military aid. Last month, General John Nicholson, Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, was in India to chalk out an enhanced military strategy with India.

India also provides training opportunities for Afghan National Security and Defence Forces in relevant Indian institutions.

India has invested around $2 billion towards the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war-ravaged country in the last 15 years. In August, Modi inaugurated the Stor Palace of Afghanistan through video-conferencing. Besides, India was also instrumental in the other projects such as opening of the new Afghan Parliament Building and the Afghan-India friendship dam.

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