Kabul not happy with scale of trilateral project

THE EXPECTATION FOR A BIG PROJECT WAS HIGH, FOR ONE, AS KABUL IS ALREADY INVOLVED IN OTHER TRILATERAL CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECTS.

BEIJING: India has conceded to China’s request to jointly implement a limited “capacity building” project in Afghanistan instead of a large-scale venture in the infrastructure or energy sectors, leaving Kabul “underwhelmed”, people familiar with the developments have said.

Beijing seemingly convinced New Delhi to opt for a smaller project in Afghanistan, possibly to assuage the misgivings of its close ally Islamabad.

Three months after the project was announced – preceded by several months of trilateral discussions – diplomats here are tight-lipped about how much progress has been made in its implementation.

The decision has left Kabul dismayed, as the Ashraf Ghani government — part of long-drawn discussions on the venture — had expected a bigger project, one that could directly benefit the citizens of the war-torn country.

Kabul was disappointed given New Delhi’s long history of being a “more effective donor” which addressed Afghanistan’s critical needs, they said.

Given that China is the world’s second largest economy and Afghanistan’s strategic partner since 2012, it was expected that Beijing would be more ambitious, they added.

India and China’s first thirdcountry project was announced after the i nformal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in April. Xi brought up the prospect of a trilateral project in Afghanistan and Modi agreed.

Later, India’s foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale shared an outline. The two countries will undertake a capacity-building project in Afghanistan, Gokhale said after the two leaders met again on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Qingdao in June.

The announcements were made at Wuhan and Qingdao, but the groundwork was done earlier. Discussions between New Delhi, Beijing and Kabul on the project had begun in 2016.

Several rounds of talks were held between Chinese, Indian and Afghan diplomats to frame a strategy and to analyse the feasibility of such a project. Equally crucial was the diplomatic message it would send out internationally.

India initially agreed to implement a joint project in agriculture, infrastructure or energy and New Delhi told Kabul as much. The expectation was China would agree as well.

Days before the Wuhan summit, China floated the idea of a capacity building project. Such a venture will be valuable but a trilateral project in Afghanistan had – and still has - the potential and capacity to be more effective and useful, the people said.