News Today: New Delhi Oct. 4, 2011: India and Afghanistan signed a strategic partnership in Delhi Tuesday, just a few days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office accused a Pakistani citizen of carrying out a suicide attack against former president and peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani last month.
The partnership, which was signed an agreement after Mr. Karzai met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, involves India training Afghan security forces. This takes ties between Delhi and Kabul to a new level, beyond the economic reconstruction that India has been very careful to focus on in the last decade since the Americans returned to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It is the first such agreement Afghanistan has with any country, including the U.S.
“The people of Afghanistan have suffered enough. They deserve to live in peace and decide their future themselves, without outside interference, coercion and intimidation,” Mr. Singh told the media Tuesday evening.
This agreement is aimed at forging a “deeper understanding between the two countries, especially at a time when the region is particularly unstable,” a highly placed Indian government official with responsibility for the matter said.
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