Heart of Asia

The Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process meeting in Tajikistan is an opportunity for the foreign ministers of participating countries to associate with each other in a better way. Though there was no meeting planned between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers, it still triggered some hope in view of the recent letter from Indian PM Narendra Modi to his counterpart in Pakistan. The consultations of Shah Mahmood Qureshi with some key regional and international partners on the sideline of the conference is a routine matter which may result in better understanding of regional issues by all sides involved. Though the conference is essentially a platform for regional cooperation on Afghanistan, its significance has increased manifold with a resurgence in the Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. Relations among Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Taliban have also seen topsy-turvy rides in recent years.

The Afghan government is adamant that it is the sole representative of the Afghan people as an elected body. India has stakes in Afghanistan as a major donor in various development and welfare projects in the country. Pakistan says Afghanistan is not able to contain terrorism from the militants located in Afghanistan. The Taliban on the other side wait for the foreign forces that America leads to withdraw from Afghanistan, failing which the Taliban have threatened to scale up their spring offensive against the Kabul government and American forces. Since India and Pakistan both have stakes in Afghanistan, perhaps it would have been better if their foreign ministers had planned a meeting in Dushanbe. The last time the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan met was in May 2019 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on the sidelines of the SCO meeting.

The same year India illegally and unilaterally announced the annexation of the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir into India and since then both India and Pakistan have had a complete breakdown in relations. Their diplomatic relations are at the lowest since the turn of the century. The recently announced ceasefire on the LoC had signaled some thawing in relations As well as Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Gen Bajwa’s peace gesture to India. Since the theme of the conference in Tajikistan is ‘Strengthening Consensus for Peace and Development’, one can hope more attention is paid to restoring peace in Afghanistan as well as in this entire region including India and Pakistan. There has to be better connectivity in the region to promote peace and that we cannot achieve unless there is some fundamental shift in the approach the estranged countries follow towards each other.