Addressing the International Contact Group (ICG) on Afghanistan and Pakistan Thursday, the Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid emphasized the importance of continued international support for Afghanistan.
Khurshid argued that a complete pullout of foreign troops this year would allow Pakistan to more easily support the Taliban. Since President Hamid Karzai's rise to power, India has become a major ally of Afghanistan, which has raised tensions with Pakistan - New Delhi's longtime rival in South Asia.
The Indian dignitary maintained his country had no "exit strategy" from Afghanistan, as the impasse over the Kabul-Washington Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) continues to claim headlines.
"People may have many strategies, but one strategy India rejects is an exit strategy from Afghanistan," Khurshid said.
He reaffirmed New Delhi's longstanding commitement to Afghanistan beyond 2014, calling upon the international community to focus attention on the hideouts and the support networks of militants, a seemingly implicit reference to Pakistan, which has been accused of nurturing militants in the past.
India and Afghanistan have become increasingly close allies in recent years and Afghan president Karzai has made several trips to the subcontinent. One of the key features of the Kabul-Delhi partnership has been security support, which is expected to increase in the coming years as NATO ratchets down its role in Afghanistan.
If the BSA falls through, and foreign troops pullout in full in December, India could become Afghanistan's biggest military ally.
The main focus of the ICG agenda was the 2014 Afghan Presidential elections, which will be the country's first democratic transition of Presidential power in history. But the ICG chairman, Germany's Michael Koh, said that the BSA came up during member speeches a number of times.