NEW DELHI: Afghan President Hamid Karzai begins a two-day visit to India on Tuesday that could boost the two countries' economic ties and lead to an agreement for India to train its police.
India is one of Afghanistan's biggest bilateral donors, having pledged about $2 billion since the 2001 invasion, for projects from the construction of highways to the building of the Afghan parliament.
Karzai's visit, in which he will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has been scheduled for months.
But it comes as Afghanistan appears increasingly frustrated with Pakistan, with many senior officials accusing its intelligence agency of masterminding the assassination last month of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Kabul's chief peace negotiator with the Taliban.
Karzai himself has said there is a Pakistani link to the killing, and investigators he appointed believe the assassin was Pakistani and the suicide bombing was plotted in Quetta.
“At this juncture, the visit will cause great heartburn in Islamabad,” said Saeed Naqvi, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank in New Delhi.
“That is unfortunate from the Indian perspective because anything achieved in the visit will be seen by Pakistan as an insult.”
India has already trained a small number of officers from the Afghan National Army at defence institutions in India.
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