Washington wants India to fill up the post-US vacuum in Afghanistan and play a bigger role training Afghan security forces as a NATO deadline to withdraw all its combat troops from that country by the end of 2014 draws near.

New York: Washington wants India to fill up the post-US vacuum in Afghanistan and play a bigger role training Afghan security forces as a NATO deadline to withdraw all its combat troops from that country by the end of 2014 draws near.

There is irony in the situation as the same US administration wanted India to downsize its footprint in Afghanistan till a couple of years ago for fear of offending Pakistan. Now US criticism of Pakistan is no longer hush- hush. In fact, the mood on Capitol Hill is so rabidly anti-Pakistan that a US Senator held up a Farm Bill in the Senate last week by wanting to tack on a bill to choke aid to Islamabad.

Tired of catering to Pakistan’s sulks about an Indian presence in Afganistan, the US is increasingly looking to India as a partner in developing Afghanistan. New Delhi has provided some $2 billion in assistance to Afghanistan since 2001. Both the US and India have strategic partnership agreements with Afghanistan. At the cost of sending Pakistan into a paroxysms of rage, US Secretary Hillary Clinton proposed a trilateral engagement between the US, India and Afghanistan.

Nirupama Rao, India’s ambassador to Washington, made clear this month that India has every intention of preventing "a regression in Afghanistan to the situation it was before 2001." However, India has sought reassurance that the US and its allies will retain a substantial presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 because of concerns that a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda might allow Afghanistan to become a haven for Islamic jihadists obsessed with Kashmir.

"Any perception of lack of will on the part of the international community to deal firmly with terrorist groups will risk Afghanistan sliding back to being a safe haven for terrorist and extremist groups that threaten the region and beyond," External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said, alongside Clinton as India and the US held their annual strategic dialogue in Washington.

Krishna also stressed the necessity to deal with "terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens" beyond Afghanistan's borders in a veiled reference to Pakistan. The two governments also discussed terrorist safe havens in Pakistan.

Greater cooperation in counter-terrorism also populated the jammed agenda for the strategic talks. The US State Department, through its anti-terrorism assistance programmes, conducted eight courses in India in 2011 and will provide 14 courses in 2012 on topics ranging from bomb blast investigation, critical incident management, to cyber investigations and forensics.

"It's not enough just to talk about cooperation on issues ranging from civil nuclear energy, attracting US investment to India or defending human rights or promoting women's empowerment," said Clinton.

"We have to follow through so that our people, citizens of two, great pluralistic democracies, can see and feel the benefits," she added.

A day after listening to US industry leaders vent their frustration at the Indian government’s inability to pull off big ticket reforms, Krishna said he was “conscious of the fact that there is a degree of skepticism about the economic content” of the US-India relationship. He promised foreign investors a level playing field and transparency.

He said US companies will be able to participate in plans to invest more than $1 trillion on India’s infrastructure build-out in the next five years.

Two-way trade and investment has grown 40 percent since 2009 and is set to exceed $100 billion this year, but Clinton pointed out that there is "a lot of room for further growth."

The two sides agreed Wednesday to expedite negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty.