40 countries devise plan to fight terror
HEART OF ASIA CONFERENCE Meet aims at aiding warravaged Afghanistan in economic transition
AMRITSAR: A regional plan to fight terrorism and measures to boost investments as well as connectivity to Afghanistan will be the likely outcome of the Heart of Asia ministerial meeting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will inaugurate here on Sunday.
Amritsar, a stop on the old Grand Trunk (GT) Road that once seamlessly connected then Calcutta to Peshawar in Pakistan, is festooned with posters of Modi, Ghani and other leaders.
As many as 40 countries and groupings will participate in the meet aimed at helping war-ravaged Afghanistan in its political and economic transition. Finance minister Arun Jaitley will co-chair the meeting in the absence of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.
India and Afghanistan rooted for strong measures to counter terrorism – which both believe is aided by Pakistan – at a meeting of senior officials from 14 Heart of Asia countries and 17 supporting nations on Saturday.
“The threat of terrorism, terror sanctuaries, funding, drug trafficking and increasing radicalisation figured in the discussions – along with plans for connectivity and means to promote the economic well-being of Afghanistan,” an official source said.
The senior officials’ meeting was co-chaired by foreign secretary S Jaishankar and Afghanistan deputy foreign minister Hikmat Khaleel Karzai. The text for the ministerial conference on Sunday was finalised at the meet. “A substantial part of the Amritsar declaration will deal with terrorism,” the source added.
The meeting of senior foreign ministry officials lasted for around two hours. Major connectivity initiatives, including the Chabahar port project, are also slated to be discussed at the event.
The Heart of Asia-Istanbul process was launched in 2011, and the participant countries include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and the UAE.
The platform was floated to encourage security, political and economic cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbours. The countries supporting the initiative are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Britain and the United States.
Amritsar, which is not very far from the Indo-Pakistan border, has been brought under heavy security cover in view of the conference.