In a first, India to attend SCO contact group meeting on Afghanistan today

NEW DELHI: India has been invited to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) contact group meeting on Afghanistan for the first time to discuss the war-torn country’s security situation as well as economic potential, a development being viewed as an acknowledgement of India’s rising profile in the region.

The meeting, scheduled to be held in Moscow on Wednesday, comes after a successful United States-backed Indo-Afghan trade and investment show in Delhi. The SCO contact group that had become defunct in 2009 has been revived this year after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intervention, people aware of the matter told ET.

India became an SCO member in June. “What India has done for Afghanistan in terms of socio-economic projects and training of civilian and armed forces personnel since 2001 has no parallel,” an official from one of the SCO member states told ET on condition of anonymity. “Besides, India has promised to execute another 116 projects across Afghanistan. Very few nations have such a track record.”

All eight members of SCO, along with Afghanistan, are expected to attend the meeting on Wednesday. India, which is working with both the US and Russia to bring in stability in Afghanistan, hosted Putin’s envoy Zamir Kabulov coinciding with the trade show.

SCO membership has put India into the heart of Eurasian geopolitics, enabling a larger say in Afghanistan, which has a direct bearing on security situation at home. However, India’s deeper engagement with Afghanistan has been opposed by Pakistan and its army. Pakistan-backed Taliban and Haqqani network continue to target Indian interests and assets in the landlocked country as India strives to achieve “strategic depth”.

The Narendra Modi government is determined to continue with its efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, which also serves as India’s gateway to resource rich Central Asia, said an official, who did not wish to be named.

Central Asian countries, a few of which share their border with Afghanistan, also have high stakes in stability in Afghanistan as they apprehend a spillover of terror activities will affect order as well as the secular fabric of the region.