New Delhi, Jun 27 (IANS): With NATO combat forces set to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, India Thursday suggested that their place be taken by foreign investment and the development of the private sector, which would play a larger stabilising role.

"We feel that foreign investment and domestic private sector development, both small and large scale, can play that role. Let the grey suits of company executives take the place of olive green or desert brown fatigues of soldiers; and chief executive officers, the place of (military) generals," said External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, inaugurating the Delhi Investment Summit on Afghanistan here.

"They can also play a larger stabilizing role," he added.

He said if companies invest together or in numbers, they will all benefit from the collective security of venturing together.

"We need to offer a narrative of opportunity to counter the anxiety of withdrawal, uncertainty, instability and foreign interference. Investments can provide that hope for employment, training and opportunity for the future. We encourage our industries to venture into Afghanistan in numbers together with Afghan partners," he told the conference, the first ever hosted by India to assist a friendly neighbour.

Krishna also said India visualises the region between Turkey in the west to China in the east, Russia in the north to Indian Ocean in the south, as a "web of trade, transit, energy routes and economic cooperation".

He said the region could be knit together and driven by Afghanistan's mineral, agricultural and human resources along with energy reserves of Central Asia, Iran and the Gulf, and the growing economic prowess and markets of China, Russia, Turkey and India.

Noting that the military withdrawal should not result in a political or security vacuum that will be filled by extremists once again, the Indian minister said there should be "something productive" in its place.

"This vision requires international support in the form of institutional finance and foreign investment," he said, recognising the presence of representatives from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international financial institutions at the day-long event.

The meeting comes just two months after the first meeting of the partnership council held here. It is expected to give a strong impetus to the implementation of the strategic partnership agreement signed between India and Afghanistan during Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Delhi in October last.

"By virtue of its contiguity and proximity, the countries in our region have a particularly important role to play in contributing to the security, stability and prosperity of Afghanistan and the region, particularly as NATO forces draw down from a combat to a train, advise and assist role," Krishna said.

Admitting that such an investment meet on Afghanistan when NATO forces draw down by 2014 and terrorism continues to take a toll of lives, may at first sight appear counter-productive, the Indian minister said, "Afghanistan may not be the easiest destination to sell to an investor. But India has ventured to do so."

The decision, he said, was based on certain fundamental insight.

Krishna noted that Afghanistan has suffered three decades of conflict and violence that have destroyed the structures of the state and despite over 11 years of heightened international attention and foreign assistance, Afghanistan continues to remain a special case for development and technical assistance in years to come.

He said this attention and assistance will be necessary not just for Afghanistan's good, but to India's "own security, that of Afghanistan, its neighbours, the region and the world at large".

"Let us not forget why the world returned to Afghanistan in 2001," Krishna said.

Pitching that "development, security and technical assistance alone is not enough", the Indian minister said the meets on Afghanistan held at the Bonn, Chicago and the upcoming Tokyo conferences, and the Istanbul process on regional confidence-building, demonstrate the will of the international community to remain engaged in Afghanistan.