Heart of Asia ministerial confab opens in India
The 6th Ministerial Conference of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process has kicked off in India’s city of Amritsar.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly opened the conference on Sunday.
Afghanistan is the permanent chair of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process, and India is the co-chair of the event.
The conference will seek ways to boost the economy and improve peace and security as well as restore stability in Afghanistan, which has been mired in conflict since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001 ousted the Taliban regime there.
Representatives from influential regional countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and China, as well as global players and policy makers such as the European Union and the United States are among the participants of the conference.
In his address to delegates, the Afghan president said the summit takes place at an extremely important time for the country.
Ghani said militancy in Afghanistan had significantly increased in 2016. He said that, last year, Afghanistan suffered its highest number of casualties, describing it as an “unacceptable” development.
The Afghan leader said some 30 terrorist organizations, as named by the United Nations, were trying to establish terrorist bases in Afghanistan. Some states are still providing sanctuary or support to these terrorist groups, he said.
Ghani emphasized the importance of connectivity for Afghanistan with regional countries. “This connectivity can lift our people out of poverty.”
Afghanistan’s Economy Minister Abdul Sattar Murad, who is attending the conference, said on Saturday that the expectation from the conference is to work out multi-dimensional cooperation between the participating countries.
He said security has an impact on development and that cooperation was needed for that purpose.
The two-day, more general Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process Conference started on December 3, and aims at broadening intergovernmental cooperation to help resolve and improve the security conditions of Afghanistan.
It is attended by representatives from over 30 states and sponsors of the conference and over 10 international and regional institutes.
The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process organization was founded on November 2, 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.
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