Regional powers attending twin security dialogues in India and Pakistan this week are holding the lives of 40 million people in their hands.
Afghans are trapped between a radical Islamist group and a global community apparently content to sit back and let their aid-dependent country plunge into crisis.
There¡¯s a lot at stake at these two meetings. The national security chiefs of the countries in attendance in New Delhi on Wednesday ¡ª Russia, Iran, India and the five Central Asia republics ¡ª are fearful of instability spilling over their common borders. They¡¯re wary of unmanageable refugee flows, already a problem for Iran, with close to 800,000 Afghan refugees, and Pakistan, home to more than 1.45 million. All hold grave concerns that Afghanistan is again becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups and are watching for an uptick in drug trafficking and production. Close allies and India rivals, China and Pakistan, are notable no-shows.
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