Heart of Asia: Curb Terror With Pledged $500 Mn, Ghani Tells Pak
Key challenges facing the region including terror and ways to bring peace, stability to Afghanistan will be tabled.
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- Heart of Asia Conference is a two-day summit in Amritsar.
- It was a platform set up in 2011 to help Afghanistan, a war-battered country, in its transition.
- On Sunday, the main conference will be jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
- The participating nations include Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and UAE.
- There will be no bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan.
Sartaj Aziz denied entry into Golden Temple due to security reasons. India had ensured that no untoward incident was to take place during the two-day conference.
Amritsar Declaration
The Amritsar Declaration calls for regional and international cooperation for ensuring the elimination of terrorism in all forms, which includes the dismantling of its safe havens, disrupting the financial and logistical support to it.
The declaration also states that the youth’s radicalisation can only be prevented by effective de-radicalisation strategies that involve all the Heart of Asia countries.
Acknowledge Support and Finance of Terrorism
Jaitley spoke about terrorism, especially about the violence inflicted onto Afghanistan by Taliban and other terrorist groups like ISIS, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad. He highlighted the duty of all the participating nations in ensuring terrorism doesn’t find a safe haven in any form or manifestation in the nations.
Trilateral Trade Deal
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke at the conference, about the trilateral transit and transport agreement signed between India, Afghanistan and Iran.
Silence Against Terrorism in Afghanistan Will Embolden Their Masters: PM Modi
PM Modi spoke strongly about the need to demonstrate strong collective will to defeat terrorism and said that silence and inaction against terrorism in Afghanistan and the South-east Asian region will only embolden terrorists and their masters. He said that resolute action must be taken not just against forces of terrorism but also against those who support, shelter and finance them. He called for Afghanistan-led, owned and controlled peace process for bringing peace and stability.
Talking about planned projects between the two countries, PM Modi said that soon India will be connected to Afghanistan by an air transport corridor. He also said that the Herat India-Afghanistan dam aka Salma dam which was launched a few months ago will help revive economic activity in the region.
Furthermore, he reaffirmed India’ s commitment to the Afghani people and said that terrorism and externally induced instability pose the gravest threat to Afghanistan’s peace, stability and prosperity.
State-Sponsored Terror Sanctuaries Exist in Pakistan: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday unambiguously named Pakistan for promoting terrorism and said no amount of financial assistance can help stabilise the war-ravaged nation if "support to terrorists" from the neighbouring country continued. Ghani also said military operations in Pakistan have brought about selective displacement of terrorists.
He said that the project of Chabahar Port between India, Afghanistan and Iran is very important to Afghanistan in establishing connectivity in the region. On terrorism he also said that about 30 terrorist groups, as named by the UN, are trying to establish a base in Afghanistan and there is a need to identify cross-border terrorism and a fund to combat terrorism.
Furthermore, he said that Pakistan has pledged 500 million dollars for Afghanistan's development and that this amount can be spent to contain extremism in the region. Speaking to Prime Minister Modi, he said that his words will “assure Afghan people of the support of 1.25 billion Indian population.”
PM Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Hold Bilateral Talks
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani held bilateral talks focusing on a range of key issues including boosting trade and investment, India's reconstruction activities in the war-ravaged country and ways to strengthen defence and security partnership.
The issue of firming up an air cargo service pact between the two countries is understood to have figured in the talks which will give India a leverage in Afghanistan as Pakistan continued to deny transit link through its territory.
In the meeting, Modi assured Ghani of India's continued support for ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan. Also, Afghanistan is learnt to have sought enhanced supply of military hardware from India.
In May, India, Iran and Afghanistan had signed an agreement to set up a trade and transport corridor with Chabahar in Iran as the hub with an aim to develop a transit corridor.
Sartaj Aziz Meets Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
Pakistan Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during which they discussed ways to bring peace and stability in Afghanistan. The bilateral meeting came amid Afghanistan expressing its anguish over Islamabad's not so cooperative approach towards the peace process in the war-ravaged country.
Afghan government has also been critical of Pakistan over rising terror attacks on Afghanistan by militant groups operating from Pakistani soil.
"They discussed prospects of peace, development and stability in Afghanistan," a Pakistani source said. Ahead of the conference, Afghanistan had called terror emanating from Pakistan as the "greatest threat" to regional peace and stability and pressed for adopting a regional counter-terror framework at the Heart of Asia conference.
Ashraf Ghani Landed in Amritsar, Following Modi
Following the Indian Prime Minister lead, the Afghan premiere, Ashraf Ghani arrived in Amritsar on Saturday night. He will conduct bilateral talks with India during the ministerial conference.
PM Modi Arrives in Amritsar
On Saturday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Amritsar for the ministerial conference on Sunday.
PM Modi Meets Afghan Premiere Ghani
The two political leaders met and visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Prime Minister Modi served langar at the temple.
Sartaj Aziz Arrives in India; No Bilateral Talks Between Indo-Pak
Sartaj Aziz arrived in India on Saturday night. Earlier, the Pakistan top diplomat was scheduled to reach Amritsar on Sunday for the conference and was supposed to return home the same day.
In a last-minute change in schedule, Pakistan's de facto foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz left for Amritsar on Saturday evening, instead of Sunday, an official said, citing uncertain weather as the reason.
Zakaria also said Aziz may attend the dinner hosted by the Punjab government in Amritsar, which is managing the global event.
No bilateral meeting is expected between India and Pakistan, according to reports. India clarified that it received no official request for talks from Islamabad.
PM Modi, Afghan Pres Ghani Likely to Hold Talks
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani are scheduled to reach Amritsar this evening and are also likely to hold bilateral talks.
India and Afghanistan are likely to announce an air cargo service to help increase trade that both say is stymied because of their tense political relations with Pakistan.
The two leaders are also scheduled to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple and will attend the dinner hosted by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Additionally, Iran’s foreign minister, Javed Zarif, commented on relations with Afghanisthan and said:
Senior Officials Begin Talks Before the 6th Ministerial
Senior officials from the participating countries began talks in Amritsar ahead of the 6th ministerial, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.
Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Hekmat Khalil Karzai tweeted about the progress of deliberations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be joining the conference later in the day after addressing a public meeting in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Who’s Participating?
The Heart of Asia conference, also called the Istanbul Process is going to take place on 3-4 December in Amritsar, which is under a thick security blanket.
The participating nations include Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and UAE. This process is also supported by a number of developed countries including US and EU.
Why Amritsar?
The choice to hold the conference in Amritsar and not Delhi is in line with the governmental policy to hold meetings outside the national capital, as reported by LiveMint.
Since the famous Grand Trunk road passes through the state and connects Bangladesh, Peshawar and further on Afghanistan, the city was seen as the choice that would reflect the conference’s theme of connectivity.
On the Agenda
Heart of Asia – Istabul Process was a platform set up in 2011 to help Afghanistan, a war-battered country in its transition.
Afghanistan, who is the permanent chair, has been pushing for an effective counter-terror framework; India is the co-chair of the conference.
Top officials will meet on Saturday to discuss key challenges facing the region including from terror groups. They will explore ways to bring lasting peace and stability to Afghanistan.
Alienating Pakistan?
Afghanistan, which has also been witnessing increased attacks from terror groups operating from Pakistani soil, is set to push hard for a regional counter-terror framework with “binding” commitment at the annual meeting.
Unlikely Bilateral Dialogue
Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan Abrar Hussain and the Director General to Afghanistan from MoFA will take part in official level talks in Heart of Asia conference.
A bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan is unlikely as neither have submitted a formal request for one. The maximum that can be expected is a talk on the sidelines, one that is unlikely to foster a change in the prevailing situation of hostility between the nations.
Plea to Sartaj Aziz
Parents of Mumbai youth Hamid Ansari, who has been in a Pakistani jail since 2012, reached Amritsar to meet Sartaz Aziz.
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