Indian Army To Train Afghanistan, Uzbekistan Armed Forces
Dated 24/4/2007
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Indian television news channel 'NDTV' reports that a team from the Indian Army will be actively training the Afghan National Army (ANA) later this year. The team is heading to Kabul in the upcoming months.
The Indian Military team will be in Afghanistan as soon as May end to conduct infantry and education corps related training. Another team is to be dispatched to Uzbekistan in the next six months for a similar training programme. Besides teaching English to the troops, it will train them in weapon handling, map craft and fundamental battalion procedures.
'NDTV' quotes "top military officials" as making the revelations to the news channel.
The decision is bound to raise eyebrows in Rawalpindi, which forever has thought of Afghanistan as a Pakistani colony and has been following the "strategic depth" policy for over 3 decades with reference to Kabul.
Since 2001, several Indian military delegations have visited Afghanistan but this is the first time a full-fledged military team will be stationed there. India already has BRO jawans in Afghanistan engaged in various security missions.
The decision to send the team to Kabul was taken in February, and on last Friday the annual Army Commanders' conference also approved plans to send a similar team to Uzbekistan reports NDTV.
Although India is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping forces around the world it is for the first time in the past decade that India is getting involved in a non-UN military mission.
Afghanistan is a important country in the region and security and stability in Afghanistan is critical for stability in India and South Asia as a whole.