The strategic partnership lays considerable emphasis on people to people ties. The two sides have agreed to simplify the rules to facilitate people to people exchanges. India appears to be taking a cooperative security approach to deal with security issues, combining hard and soft power options.

Rather than seeking to change the Afghan uniformed services into clones of the Germans, the Poles or the Australians, it would be both cheaper and more effective to have such training carried out by a nearby military that shares several cultural and historical links with the people of Afghanistan.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations...has in recent years, shared the best of India with the world. And yet, for India's best and truest minds...a new and redemptive approach is needed. One that distinguishes our civilisation from our nation, and our nation from our State.

After 9/11 and the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, whereas India projected soft power into Afghanistan, having by now invested some $ 2 billion in reconstruction and infrastructure building in Afghanistan, Pakistan stuck to its old paradigm of offering safe havens to and supporting a proxy war by the Taliban and Haqqani network.

Those who doubt this need only look at the bipartisan public diplomacy failures of the last decade, or today at the critical elections in Egypt, where the U.S. has an astonishing lack of situational awareness and influence.

Wary of Pakistan, Indian officials have always said they want to focus on what they like to call “soft power” – economic aid and trade. The two leaders also agreed to closer co-operation in the strategically key sectors of oil and gas exploration, mining and infrastructure development, pledging to use India’s growing economic clout to foster trade and investment flows.

India has offered to train Afghan police to help them prevent future terrorist attacks in a move likely to be seen as highly provocative by long-time rival Pakistan. India has long maintained that its support for Afghanistan is civilian in nature and driven by what its officials call “civilisational links”.

The public diplomacy division of India's ministry of external affairs is launching a major initiative aimed at encouraging individuals and countries to think of India in interesting, pervasive and positive ways. This is being done through a global video challenge themed "India is...Global Video Contest."