.style1 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; } .style2 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; color: #0E0E94; } NATO COURTING MOSCOW FOR AFGHAN ASSISTANCE
Training and equipping Afghanistan’s military and police forces is a critical component of the U.S./NATO counterinsurgency strategy in that country. In January, the Pentagon announced a plan to significantly boost the size of the Afghan army by next year, partly to offset the withdrawal next year of thousands of U.S. troops deployed for the “surge” now underway. Under the plan, the Afghan Army would expand from its present size of 102,400 personnel to 171,600 by October 2011. By current military projections the Afghan Army could be increased to as much as 400,000 by 2013. To help supply and train that massive force, NATO has turned to an unlikely partner -- Russia. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has asked Moscow to provide Afghanistan with a “helicopter package” as well as spare parts and technical training. Rasmussen is also working to have the NATO-Russia Council establish a permanent Afghanistan working group. The way he sees it, cooperation on Afghanistan will be the “centerpiece of our [NATO-Russian] partnership in 2010.”
For its part, Russia is pressing NATO to crack down on the Afghan drug industry. Russia’s top anti-drug official, Viktor Ivanov, is urging NATO to destroy Afghanistan’s poppy fields, which generate as much as $65 billion a year, $300 million of which may go to the Taliban. Ivanov has hailed a U.S.-Russian anti-drug commission set up last summer but is concerned that up to 30,000 Russians died from Afghan heroin in 2009 alone. According to Ivanov, Russia is not alone: “Drugs from Afghanistan killed 10,000 people in NATO countries in 2009 – that’s 50 times higher than NATO’s military losses. We need to change the strategy and fight this dangerous security threat.” (eurasianet.org February 24, 2010; New York Times January 14, 2010; UPI March 30, 2010)
PAKISTAN’S CONSTITUTION GETS A MAKEOVER
A nine-month endeavor by the Pakistani parliament to amend the country’s constitution is finally coming to a head. A 27-member parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms has just wrapped up its recommendations for the “18th constitutional amendment.” The bill has been endorsed by Prime Minister Yousef Gilani and hailed by President Asif Zardari, despite the significant loss of power the presidency will endure if the bill is approved in the joint session of the Senate and National Assembly called for April 5th. The bill could be passed within a week of debate.
The so-called 18th amendment is in fact 100 amendments to over 70 articles of the current Pakistani constitution. The most prominent provision of the bill would revoke a series of powers granted to the presidency under a 2003 amendment orchestrated by then-president Pervez Musharraf. Those powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament, would return to the Prime Minister. Many of the amendments are designed to decentralize power away from the executive to the judiciary, parliament, and the provinces. A chief election commissioner would now be appointed with the consultation of the opposition and the Islamabad high court would be revived. Also notable, the NorthWest Frontier Province would be renamed Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa. (Beijing Peoples Daily April 1, 2010
MORE HARDWARE TO SINO-INDIAN BORDER
In the latest development in the ongoing military and logistical buildup along the contested Sino-Indian border, India will “progressively base six surface-to-air Akash missile squadrons in the North-East to counter the threat posed by Chinese fighters, helicopters and drones in the region.” India is seeking to redress what it sees as a critical military imbalance/disadvantage along its northeastern border with China where the two fought a war in 1962. The first of the indigenously-developed Akash systems of supersonic missiles and radars is due to be deployed by 2011. The IAF should get as many as eight tactical air defense squadrons – each containing two flights of four launchers -- by 2015 and the Indian Army is looking to order two regiments with six batteries each. Also in the pipeline is the deployment of two specialized infantry mountain divisions containing 1,260 officers and 35,011 troops to the northeast by 2012, as well as an artillery brigade and two Sukhoi-30 MKI squadrons in Assam. Meanwhile, the 3,500-km Agni III ballistic missile is set for deployment in 2011-2012 and the 5,000-km Agni V is currently under development. For its part, China is upgrading as many as 14 airfields in Tibet, including one 30km from the border with the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. (Times of India February 16, 2010)
NEW INTEL SATELLITE FOR INDIA
India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are jointly developing an intelligence satellite fitted with “electronic warfare sensors” to be launched into lower earth orbit, most likely in 2014. According to a top defense scientist, the satellite, more powerful than the ISRO’s current remote satellites, will focus on “the mountain range facing Pakistan, China, Nepal and to the northeast to detect troop or vehicular movement across the border.” (The Hindu February 9, 2010)
IRAN AND PAKISTAN REACH DEAL ON “PEACE PIPELINE”
A deal on the long awaited, much-delayed IPI pipeline has been reached, although it will be lacking an “I”. Iran and Pakistan have decided to move forward with the $7.6 billion natural gas pipeline without India, which withdrew from negotiations last year. Talks on the pipeline have been underway for over a decade and India was close to agreement on several occasions. However, distrust of Islamabad, particularly after the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, and a pricing dispute with Tehran eventually took New Delhi to the sidelines. The new “peace pipeline” (Pakistan and Iran have themselves had a rocky past) will carry 750m cubic feet of gas from Iran’s South Fars gas field to Pakistan’s southern provinces. Officials suggest it will be operational by 2015. (BBC March 17, 2010)
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