The Russia–India–China Trilateral and Afghanistan

Abstract

This article examines the possible contours of a trilateral initiative for the pursuit of a regional solution to the long-term stability of Afghanistan. Such a solution, in the author’s view, would have to be based on the involvement of Afghanistan’s neighbours—Pakistan, Iran, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Russia, as well as China, along with sustained efforts to support a well-focussed, Afghan-led counterinsurgency campaign. This would have to be strongly supplemented by a coordinated process of political reconciliation and economic rehabilitation based on the speedy integration of Afghanistan into regional energy, transport and trade networks.