India has always had a historical and civilizational connect with the people [of Afghanistan

• Post the Taliban era, engagement by India with Afghanistan focused on to ensure a strong commitment for building peace and stability in Afghanistan.
• India’s strategy in Afghanistanis guided by the desire to prevent a government that would readily provide Pakistan with strategic depth and a safe haven for terror groups.
• India has opted to pursue a ‘soft power’ strategy to engage Afghanistan,preferring to contribute substantially in the civilian sector rather than in defence and security.
• India is particularly active in the construction, infrastructure, human capital building and mining sectors. Besides, it has also identified the telecommunications, health, pharmaceuticals, and information technology and education sectors for cooperation.
• Within the framework of two bilateral agreements, India has pledged over $ 2 billion in aid to Afghanistan. And, by the end of the year 2017 the investment has already crossed $3 billion.
• India has also agreed to build the 600-km-long Bamiyan – Herat rail link which will serve to connect the Hajigak mines to Herat and further to the Iranian port of Chabahar via the Delaram-Zaranj highway, which India had constructed in 2009.
• This makes India the fifth largest investor in Afghanistan’s stability and quest for economic and social development.

Some of the other important projects

• • Supply of 250,000 tons of wheat.
  • Construction of the Parliament building ($ 178 million).
  • Construction of the Pul-i-Khumri to Kabul power line ($120 million).
  • Salma Dam power project ($ 130 million).
  • Food assistance to primary school children, and construction and rehabilitation of schools ($ 321 million).
  • Expansion of national television network with an uplink from Kabul and downlinks in all 34 provincial capitals.
  • Women’s Vocational Training Center in Bagh-e-Zanana for training of Afghan women in garment making, nursery plantation, food processing and marketing.
  • Reconstruction of Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health, Afghanistan’s only hospital for children, in Kabul.
  • 84 ongoing projects related to agriculture, education, health, vocational training and solar energy.
• The move not only reinforces India''s position as a key provider of essential aid to Afghanistan but also highlights New Delhi''s efforts to craft positive relations, even though it does not formally recognize the Taliban regime that seized power in August 2021. India reestablished its diplomatic presence in mid-2022 by deploying a "technical team" in the Afghan capital. Experts say the region is simply too important to leave.
• Pakistan’s approaches towards Afghanistan especially since 1980, accelerated the spread of Islamism and sectarianism in that country though its seeds were present in the country’s foundational principle—''the two-nation theory'', itself.
• The real problem in Afghanistan-Pakistan relations lies in the Pakistani establishment’s obsessive desire to control Kabul’s foreign, especially its India, policy. This is apart from the unresolved issue of the boundary. For the Afghan Pashtuns, the Durand Line is a reminder of humiliation though the issue does not resonate with equal intensity among other Afghan ethnic groups.
• Further, all Afghans including the Taliban, acknowledge that the Pakistan’s approaches towards Afghanistan are driven not by altruism but by its interests. Many Afghans feel that Pakistan’s policy towards their country is a subset of its India policy. That is why it does not allow Indian goods to transit its territory thereby impeding the India-Afghanistan trade.
• Islamabad''s own relations with the Afghan Taliban have soured, in part over the Kabul rulers'' inability or unwillingness to rein in Pakistani Taliban militants. And now India is tightening ties in a country Islamabad has long considered part of its sphere of influence.