India, Afghanistan to ink strategic partnership document

India and Afghanistan will sign a strategic partnership document during Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to India next week, including Indian help to train Afghan security forces, reported local daily Indian Express on Sunday. The agreement will build on the understanding reached between the two countries when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Kabul in May. It will also be Afghanistan's first strategic agreement with any country, said the report. The agreement will include an Indian commitment to assist and train Afghan national security forces, but the nature of such assistance will be determined by Kabul, the report quoted unnamed sources said. India is already running several training courses for Afghan security officials in Indian academies to develop Afghan police force. The strategic partnership document will also institutionalize regular dialogue at the level of the National Security Adviser, which will focus on cooperation in sensitive security aspects of the relationship. New Delhi will not look to dictate the pace and scope of security cooperation, and would rather want Kabul to take the lead, said the report. The agreement will have political, economic and people-to- people components, and will be piloted by a partnership council headed by the foreign ministers of the two countries, while several joint working groups will be set up in due course, said the report. Besides peace and security issues, the agreement will also institutionalize regular consultations on forging common positions at the UN and other international bodies. The Indian Cabinet Committee on Security is expected to give its approval to the agreement early next week.