India's development efforts in Afghanistan provide "more bang per buck" and the international community should take some lessons from it, British High Commissioner Richard Stagg said in New Delhi on Friday.
His remarks come ahead of the London Conference, convened by Afghanistan, the UK and the United Nations on January 28, to coordinate global reconstruction efforts in the strife-torn country.
"India's reconstruction programme in Afghanistan has more impact per dollar than other international efforts. This is probably what we can learn from India," Stagg said.
He noted that the Indian efforts were more focussed on the civilian sector while international thrust was more on the military side.
Stagg said the European Union had plans to spend $ 1.3 billion on development programmes in Afghanistan this year.
However, he said that Indian efforts were "very underknown and undervalued", and expected External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to tell the London Conference what India was doing in Afghanistan.
"It is an opportunity for minister Krishna to tell what India is doing, why it matters and some of his perspectives on why the Indian approach is the one we must think about adopting ourselves," Stagg said.
Asked whether Britain had made any request to India to train the Afghan National Army, he said no such request was made.
Stagg said India could play an important role in any regional framework to stabilise Afghanistan.
At the same time, he said Britain believed that Russia, Iran, China need to be involved in supporting a settlement in Afghanistan.
"They all have the capacity to make a resolution for Afghanistan... We need to be sure that they are part of a regional framework," the high commissioner said.
He said Afghan President Hamid Karzai's "credible and coherent" view for Afghanistan needs to be backed by the international community.
Ministers from more than 60 countries are expected to attend the London conference on January 28 and announce fresh commitments for reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Stagg noted that US President Barack Obama had in December announced a major surge of more than 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan in a bid to defeat the Taliban and the Al Qaeda.
