Tajik air base is ready, gives India its first footprint in strategic Central Asia

[Adux]

http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache...94.pdf+aini+airbase+indian&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7

Congressional Report, It just confirms that there are Reports of Aini being used by India, Doesnt give any details.



Differnet Report
India Pushes North
Posted by James | in Military Affairs, Foreign Policy | on December 13th, 2005
Author Archive: James
India will establish its first toehold in Central Asia by sharing occupation of the Aini airbase and upgrading the Soviet-era facility. This is a significant first step into the region for the Indians, who, according to Martha Brill Olcott’s latest book Central Asia’s Second Chance, have been “biding their time, waiting to see how the region develops before they waste too much diplomatic capital.”

India already had a small military presence in the country, notably Mi-17 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, as well as hospital used to treat Northern Alliance fighters. It will be interesting to see how this development progresses.

http://tajikistan.neweurasia.net/?p=18

 

[Adux]

India arrives in Central Asia




It was either a master stroke of diplomacy or a simple a coincidence that in the first two weeks of this month, India left its imprimatur on Central Asia as never before. Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha was in Uzbekistan spearheading the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) discourse on Central Asia. Defence Minister George Fernandes was building bridges in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee cementing strategic ties with Tajikistan. Quite breathtaking was the confirmation of India's strategic foothold at the Aini air base near Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The formal agreement on upgrading and use of the air-base was clinched by Mr Fernandes on an earlier visit to Tajikistan in April 2002. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee recently proposed the extension of the link road from Chabahar Port in Iran to Kabul and thence via Kunduz in Badakshan (Afghanistan) to Tajikistan. This would give a geographically disadvantaged India additional access to Central Asia and Afghanistan.



The Indo-Tajik lifeline was very tenuous in the gory days of the Taliban but it was still the one most durable that eventually swung the fortunes of Afghanistan and Central Asia by preventing the Taliban's conquest of the Northern Alliance's remaining toe-hold in the north-eastern Badakshan province of Afghanistan. Army intelligence and external affairs officers at the very highest level pored over different scale maps of Afghanistan to devise a military-diplomatic strategy to keep the beleaguered Lion of the Panjshir Valley, Ahmad Shah Masood, prowling. All through 1999 and the next two years, military expertise, humanitarian aid and funds were channelled into Badakshan to bolster Masood in deterring Pakistan-backed Taliban from occupying Badakshan. The last time Afghanistan and India considered outflanking Pakistan was in the mid-70s but the strategy was never pursued.



Twenty-five years on, the story was different. Intelligence representatives from Iran, Russia and Tajikistan met through the years 2000 and 2001 in Delhi's military cantonment to coordinate a collective strategy for defeating the Taliban's attempts to capture Badakshan. The redoubtable Ahmad Shah Masood was present in one such meeting. The first bilateral intelligence-sharing agreement between Tajikistan and India was signed between the two countries in May 2001. India set up a hospital on the Tajik-Afghan border at Khwajabahar which was later moved to Kabul.



Senior Army generals visited Badakshan and helped their Tajik counterparts in laying out their defences to protect the only airfield in the province at Faizabad. Wargames and other defensive plans were made to prevent the collapse of the Northern Alliance. The Indian Government could not be persuaded to provide decisive military equipment to the Tajiks at a time when the fall of the Northern Alliance was considered imminent. Then providence intervened. On 7 September 2001, Masood was assassinated by Al Qaeda. The Afghan Ambassador to India, Mr Khalili, since reinstated in Delhi, was seriously wounded in the attack. Two days later, 9/11 happened. Had the Al Qaeda waited a month or two before striking at the US, Taliban would have completed the conquest of Afghanistan by capturing a leaderless Northern Alliance in Badakshan.



The fluctuating fortunes of the Taliban were tipped by the Northern Alliance-led US coalition's war in Afghanistan in October 2001. The Tajiks' intimate knowledge of the ground around Kabul led to its unopposed recapture and liberation from Taliban. India played a key behind-the-scene role in Tajik primacy in the Hamid Karzai Government in Kabul. Ahmad Shah Masood, is therefore, not just an icon in the north of the country, but also a national hero of Afghanistan after the war. The defeat of the Taliban was greeted with a sigh of relief in Central Asia.



Tajikistan, a frontline state, was riven with instability and terrorism ever since the Taliban took over Kabul. But for the buffer provided by the Northern Alliance, Tajikistan would have been flooded with fundamentalists and drugs and President Rakhmanov's regime toppled. The granting of the Aini airbase to India was Mr Rakhmanov's gesture of gratitude for Delhi's steadfast support to the Northern Alliance. Mr Fernandes signed the bilateral agreement for the use of the airbase with his counterpart in Dushanbe in April 2002. This was a landmark achievement for the government. Aini and Palaly in Sri Lanka are the only two airfields outside the country where Indian Military Engineering Service (MES) personnel are stationed for their upkeep and maintenance. Exactly one year after Fernandes signed the Aini agreement there was a serious glitch. Even while Indian MES personnel were deployed at Aini, Russia, whose backyard this was once, as the former Soviet colony, felt it had been upstaged by India and brought in a squadron of helicopters in the first week of June this year. The Tajik Ambassador in Delhi informed Joint Secretary (Central Asia) of the incident which created a minor stir in the Government. The Russian action was surprising as in May 2003, President Putin had told the Tajiks to "let India have it" (Aini). He had 'approved' the handover of Aini to India. It seems the Russian Defence Minister had other ideas and had proposed to his counterpart in Delhi through the Indian Ambassador in Moscow that the two countries should have "joint use of the airbase". But India insisted that it was a bilateral agreement and the matter was soon settled.



Moscow is still keen to get back the Kulyab airbase on the Afghanistan-Tajik border. Aini used to be a former Soviet airbase and a Russian motorised division was deployed on the Tajik-Afghan border till recently.



India has deep strategic interests in Central Asia. Aini allows India a keener watch over Afghanistan and Pakistan as also its economic interests in Central Asian markets by securing oil and gas. Such is the span of India's strategic interests in its extended neighbourhood. The post-9/11 US and NATO expansion in the region have alerted Russia. On 23 October this year Russia occupied its former garrison in Kant Airport near Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan invoking the Collective Security Treaty Organisation Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to reoccupy the space vacated by the former USSR in Central Asia, secure energy contracts and tap recruits for Russian armed forces. China is not lagging behind and uses the Beijing-sponsored Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to secure economic and strategic interests. Pakistan's stock in Central Asia is pretty low given its complicity in terrorism and using religion and its clergy to secure influence. The key players in Central Asia at present are the US, China and Russia. India too can occupy a berth along with its friends and allies to promote its national interests. Iran and Afghanistan would be willing to provide the requisite launch pads to India. China willing, India may soon find a place in the SCO.



After Sri Lanka in the late 1980s, the Tajik facility at Aini is India's first airbase outside its frontiers. It has now secured contracts in the Trincomalee harbour and Palaly airfield in Sri Lanka. The political and strategic blitzkrieg of Central Asia by India is both a matter of sense and timing. Aini is just the symbol of a slow but sound policy. Much more has to be done in Central Asia without Pakistan being factored in policy-making.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columni...ile_name=MEHTA25.txt&writer=MEHTA&validit=yes

 

[Adux]

India in Central Asian Republics

MUHAMMAD ASAD
India desires to further strengthen its military ties with the Central Asian Republics (CARs). To achieve this purpose, several Indian military delegations have been visiting capitals of Central Asian States, particularly Tajikistan. The visits are aimed at firming up plans for joint military exercises and economic projects. Several ministers of the CARs have already visited India.
The USA is also encouraging India to deepen her ingresses in the Republics as peoples of some republics abhor USA because of her over-ebullient support to Israel vis-à-vis Muslim countries. Agha Shahi in "Geopolitics of Central Asia" points to "combination of India and Israel" which "serves the American Strategic interests in the Middle East and is now being focused on Central Asia" (see Islamabad Policy Research Institute Factfile Pakistan and Central Asian States, 1992-2006)
India has already been using Tajikistan as a base for her aircraft carrying humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Afghanistan. Several batches of Tajik Army officers have already been trained in Indian military establishments (as per agreement signed between the two countries).
Central Asia occupies an important place in New Delhi's "security calculus". India visualizes CARs as a scene of a new geopolitical game. It expects competition between the United States, Russia, and China in this area - China and Kyrgyzstan have conducted joint military exercises aimed, ostensibly, at coordinating their response to terrorism. The United States has enhanced its military presence in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan since its involvement in Afghanistan and secured cooperation from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.
India wishes to supplant Russia from the CARs. But, certain treaties sanction Russian presence in the CARs. For example, (a) the 1993 Treaty of Friendship between Russia and Tajikistan gives Russia's Federal Border Service authority for the protection of the Tajik border. Russia's 201st Motorized Rifle Division occupies a base near Dushanbe. (2) The Russian Air Force has deployed its planes at the joint Russian-Kyrgyz air base, Kant Air-Base, in Kyrgyzstan, under e Collective Security Treaty.
Despite its frantic efforts, it would be hard for India to realise her dream of being the master player in the CAR. India lacks the sophisticated weaponry that Moscow and Washington could provide to the CAR. India's immediate aim is to isolate Pakistan in the region and gain political support on the Kashmir issue. Already, India feels much embarrassed by creation of the China-dominated Shanghai Organization. The organisation unites Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
Stephen Blank, a professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College, had warned that the visits of Indian military officials to Tajikistan was part of a broad design, which he believed was "quite alarming" in its potential. "There are many signs that India is gearing up to put military pressure on Pakistan," he said. "The Indians are absolutely furious with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf...". Blank envisaged the possibility that the Farkhor base in Tajikistan, close to the Afghan border, will be the focus of India's deepening involvement in Central Asian defence.
The Farkhor military base was established to funnel Indian relief assistance to Kabul after India and Pakistan imposed mutual bans on over flights in December 2001. However, the base is actually meant to force Pakistan to thinly spread its air-defence assets towards Afghanistan. Aini air base is another threat to Pakistan's military interests.
India understands that Pakistan is an energy-deficit country. India wants to utilise her presence in the CARs to scuttle Pakistan's efforts to tap energy resources of the CARs. Because of India's overt and covert manipulations, Pakistan has not been able to make headway with projects to lay pipelines from the CAR to Pakistan.
Because of India's presence in Afghanistan, it is now becoming increasingly difficult for Pakistan to run the pipelines across Afghanistan to the CAR. Dr Maqsoodul Hassan Nuri in "Pak-CAR Relations: Future Outlook" (The News, August 23, 2004) questions: "What are prospects of gas and oil pipelines? Firstly, they are still statements of intent. The Afghan government will have to muster financial resources to build pipelines, the plants needed to turn natural gas into liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and to improve the harbour facilities for LPG tankers. The UNOCAL and BRIDAS litigation deterred many U.S. companies to invest, as they are worried about instability of Afghanistan and even South Asia'. The pipeline from Iran is under a cloud because of India's uncertain cooperation and US cooperation.
Obviously, India has not accepted Pakistan's existence at heart. It wants to weaken Pakistan militarily and economically.
RAND scholar Tanham in Indian Strategic Thought points out, "Indian politicians viewed the 1947 partition and creation of Pakistan as an unfortunate but temporary breach in the strategic unity of the subcontinent". But, India must realise it would not be easy to break up a nuclear Pakistan. Clearly, it is in India's interest to accept Pakistan as a friendly neighbour. It should abandon Chanakya's mandal policy - 'all neighbouring countries are actual or potential enemies'.

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/sep-2006/8/columns3.php

 

[Bull]

It seems it was in US and Russian interests to see India having a base in tajikstan where China was trying to spread its reach. Moreover this base was used by India long before to run hospital for the northern alliances during the war against Taliban.

Its in India's and Tajisktan's interest to deny such reports. Why would they state that and bring so much of attention to it.

 

[Contrarian]

We won't nuke Tadjikistan, we're well capable of destroying the infrastructure with our missiles. India would require an air corridor over Pakistan or China to reach the facility, its quite an easy task to isolate the base.

Yes, but Russia is there as well, with ground troops present also, they will supply the necessary requirements of India, in times when Pakistan might try and block the base .

Russia will back India in logistics and equipment the whole nine yards.

 

[Contrarian]

Please elaborate!
We were practically at war with the Sovjets, their intruders violated our airspace frquently during 1979-1987 and many were dowend.

Its an insult for our pilots to assume that they can't handle 6 Mig-29's.

Neo, information about such things are VERY classified, probably they are just saying 12 migs, maybe they are just 12 Indian Migs, and many more Russian ones that India can and will obviously use,

And they are not revealing the total amount of MIgs stationed there, 12 is just for the public to know. Do you get me? We dont know what kind of equipment will be kept there, but the fact that there will be 6 Migs there, means India is ready to put high tec equipment there.

It seems it was in US and Russian interests to see India having a base in tajikstan where China was trying to spread its reach. Moreover this base was used by India long before to run hospital for the northern alliances during the war against Taliban.

Its in India's and Tajisktan's interest to deny such reports. Why would they state that and bring so much of attention to it.

Obviously they would deny it, i think the reason we got the base was arm twisting by Russia, and they would share in it as well, this is very good, as it also gives some kind of backup, assuming Pakistan goes full force against this base in a war, they would be hurting Russian interests and equipment as well, its their base also, and they would go anti-Pakistan even more.

Russia would be there with more and more materials, as will India, course they would not have given the entire details to the press.

The base is all purpose, for assiting in the insertion of special forces in other countries, to having gunships and MiG 29's, alls gonna be there.