India Largest Contributor in Region: Pentagon

The United States welcomes additional economic, medical, and civic support from New Delhi to Kabul, saying India is Afghanistan’s most reliable regional partner, Pentagon told US congress on Friday.
“India is Afghanistan’s most reliable regional partner and the largest contributor of development assistance in the region,” said the Pentagon in its report to the Congress titled ‘Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan’.

According to Firstpost, this assistance includes civil development projects such as the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam and the Afghan parliament building, the report said.
“The new South Asia policy highlighted our relationship with India and called on India to provide more assistance to the international efforts in Afghanistan. The United States welcomes additional Indian economic, medical, and civic support to Afghanistan,” the report added.

“A major change from our previous strategy is the shift from a time-based approach to a conditions-based one. We will continue to work with Afghan security forces to defeat their enemies and to ultimately arrive at a political settlement in the country,” the Pentagon further said.

This is the first report of the Pentagon to Congress after president Donald Trump announced his new Afghan and South Asia policy in August.