Participants in Heart of Asia conference to discuss Afghan peace settlement

ISLAMABAD, December 8. /TASS/. The prospects of the Afghan peace settlement will top the agenda of the 5th Heart of Asia regional conference that has got underway in Islamabad on Tuesday. Pakistan is hosting the forum established in 2011 at the initiative of Afghanistan and Turkey for the first time. The Russian delegation is led by presidential envoy for Afghanistan and Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Asia Department Zamir Kabulov. The foreign ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan opened earlier in the day a meeting of senior officials of the participating countries. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will open on Wednesday a ministerial meeting at the conference whose result will be the passing of the joint declaration titled "Enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the Heart of Asia region." Taking into account the recent exacerbation of Pakistan’s relations with its two nearest neighbors - Afghanistan and India - the participation of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj whose arrival in Islamabad was confirmed only recently is seen as a telling sign. "Our region has got bogged down in the quagmire of security challenges, which substantially complicate its further socio-economic development," Pakistani Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz said in his welcoming remarks. "We want a lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan, instability in this country is not in our interests." "The wave of terrorist attacks that has swept across the region and the entire world, including those organized by Islamic State, once again reminded us of the danger of terrorism threatening the whole of humanity and the need to join forces at an early date to confront this evil," Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai said in his speech. The participants in the conference will discuss the prospects for the implementation of large-scale energy, infrastructure and investment projects designed to facilitate the economic development of Afghanistan weakened by the long civil war. They will also focus on the issue of the resumption of dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban movement. The prospects for its relaunching remain uncertain, including taking into account the recent reports of the death of new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor. Read more