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Editor's Note: Shashi Tharoor, a former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and UN Under-Secretary General, is a member of India's parliament and the author of a dozen books, including India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Nehru: the Invention of India. For more from Tharoor, visit Project Syndicate's website, or check it out on Facebook and Twitter.

By Shashi Tharoor

NEW DELHI – U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement of the start of American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, and his administration's increasing emphasis on reconciliation with the Taliban, have been studied attentively in one capital that has a large stake in the outcome – New Delhi.

India has no troops in Afghanistan, but it has invested roughly $1.5 billion to help reconstruct the country, with projects ranging from maternity hospitals to Kabul's electricity grid. During his visit to Afghanistan in May, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced additional assistance of $500 million, over and above India's existing commitments.

This is by far India's largest foreign-aid program, because Afghanistan – separated from India only by its hostile neighbor Pakistan – remains a country of vital strategic significance for India. Read more of this post