A "Greater Central Asia Partnership" for Afghanistan and Its Neighbors

 
 
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14. What Relation Should Exist Between GCAP and India and Turkey? 
Unlike Russia, China, and Iran, India and Turkey are not direct neighbors to any 
GCAP member. At the same time, India and Turkey both enjoy unique historical 
relationships to Central Asia.
Over two thousand years, India’s entire northwest extending to Agra and beyond fell 
under the control of powerful rulers coming down from Central Asia—including 
Mahmud of Ghazni, Tamerlane, and the Moghuls. Its culture has been decisively 
affected by Central Asia, while never having itself been a conqueror in the region.
Today, a booming India is ready for trade and investment involving Afghanistan and 
its neighbors to the north. India has already emerged as a serious donor in 
Afghanistan and is extending its involvement elsewhere in Greater Central Asia. 
Inevitably, such links will require the amelioration of the painful relationship 
between India and Pakistan, which GCAP will promote by its very existence. As the 
engine of regional trade promotes the improvement of Indian-Pakistani relations, 
India will become yet another major power with serious interests in Greater Central 
Asia.
Turkey was similarly ruled, but also settled by populations of Central Asian descent, 
and shares strong linguistic and cultural ties. While its level of attention to the region 
has varied over the past decade, the process of Turkey’s accession to the European 
Union will in the long term increase Turkey’s attractiveness to Central Asia and its 
potential to play an important economic role in the region. Turkey is already for the 
second time assuming command of ISAF in Afghanistan, indicating its engagement 
in the region and its military capacity, which is key to NATO’s future role in the 
region.
As such, both India and Turkey would be natural participants in the informal 
“concert” of neighboring states and the U.S. discussed above, and another element in 
the balance of outside powers (including the U.S.) that will become the unofficial 
guarantor of sovereignty, peace, and stability in the region. For these reasons, India 
and Turkey should be welcomed as observers or donor-participants in GCAP.