Representatives from 40 countries will gather at Amritsar over the weekend to deliberate on taking forward the social, economic and security development of Afghanisatan, a country ravaged by terror over the last few decades. India is hosting the sixth chapter of the Heart of Asia meet.
Speaking to press persons, Afghan ambassador to India Shaida Mohammed Abdali expressed condolences over the terror attack on the military base in Nagrota and noted that “Unless we take collective measures to fight the breeding ground of terrorism'', the problem would not not get resolved.
He said that “terorism is the creation of this region (sub-continent) and the solution also lies here. The Heart of Asia meet is well timed in addressing these challenges.'' Later, answering to a question about Pakistan's participation in the meet, although most of the terror attacks in the region were exported from Pakistani soil, the ambassador said that “one can find solutions only from the place where the problems are coming from.''
The ambassador noted that since the first Heart of Asia meet in Istanbul, there had been considerable progress on the economic front. “We no longer seek connectivity, we are now offering connectivity to less developed regions,'' he said, elaborating on the developments in the Lapiz lazuli corridor, the five nation railway and Chabahar port—all of which are likely to be discussed at the meet—but added that on the security front, there still needed a lot more work and co-operation.
Gopal Bagle, joint secretary, (Pakistan Afghanistan Iran), ministry of external affairs, said that while the senior officials meeting co-chaired on the Indian side by foreign secretary S. Jaishankar would be held on December 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the ministerial meet on December 4, along with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz is scheduled to attend the meet but the MEA said there had been no request for a bilateral talk with India on the sidelines of the meet.
