Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
The Taliban says it carried out a suicide bombing near the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least 17 people. India believes its embassy was the target – if confirmed, it would be the second attack on the embassy in just over a year. The World’s Matthew Bell looks at what’s at stake for India in the Afghanistan war.

• India: Afghanistan’s influential ally
• In pictures: Kabul attack

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: As we mentioned earlier the big news from Afghanistan today was the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul. It was the second such attack on India’s embassy there in a little over a year. India’s role in Afghanistan is often overlooked here in the US but New Delhi is one of Afghanistan’s largest donors. It’s pledged more than a billion dollars for policing, education, and infrastructure. The World’s Matthew Bell takes a look at what India’s growing influence in Afghanistan means for Washington.

MATTHEW BELL: There’s a line of thinking about US involvement in Afghanistan and it goes like this: If the road to success in Kabul runs through Islamabad, Pakistan then the road to success in Islamabad runs through New Delhi, India. Daniel Markey is an expert on South Asia at the council on foreign relations.

DANIEL MARKEY: The logic is that when Pakistan looks out into the world and in particular when it looks to Afghanistan it feels encircled by India. And the idea would be sitting here in Washington if somehow we could help Pakistan to help feel less threatened by India in Afghanistan maybe Pakistan would be more helpful to Washington.

BELL: What would be most helpful would be for Pakistan to crack down harder on militant and extremist groups including the Pakistani Taliban that are crossing into Afghanistan and causing chaos. But here’s the problem Pakistan’s intelligence services have been linked to those extremist groups because the militants are sworn enemies of India and they’ve been especially active in the volatile region of Kashmir. So in short, if the US could solve the Kashmir issue Washington would do itself a huge favor in Afghanistan. As a candidate Barack Obama even talked about this but his administration has steered clear of making it a priority. It’s true that the US and India have many shared goals in Afghanistan. However South Asia expert MJ Gohel says there’s very little political will in India for making concessions on Kashmir for the sake of succeeding in Afghanistan.

MJ GOHEL: Even if the relationship between India and Pakistan were to be normalized it will not solve the problem of the Taliban, of al-Qaeda and a number of the other Jihadi groups which are entrenched within Pakistan. So these are two separate issues. Kashmir can be resolved tomorrow but terrorism isn’t going to end with that.

BELL: Indians credit George W. Bush with quote de-hyphenating the US approach to South Asia. In other words it stopped dealing with India-Pakistan as a single troubled region. There has been some nervousness in India that President Obama might re-hyphenate the two countries so to speak but Pramit Palchuadhuri, foreign editor of the Hindustan Times in New Delhi, says those fears have not materialized. For example he says Mr. Obama sent a subtle message to India at the recent G20 meeting in Pittsburg.

PRAMIT PALCHUADHURI: He had a dinner in which India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was placed, ended up sitting right next to him. And when we asked Indian officials how did this happen. They said it was purely random.

BELL: But Palchuadhuri says someone at the White House explained things to him differently. The editor says his inside source told him there was nothing random about the seating arrangement and that President Obama specifically asked to be seated next to the Indian prime minister. For The World I’m Matthew Bell.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.