Heart of Asia summit to focus on Afghanistan

The two-day Heart of Asia summit will begin here on Saturday with the focus on stabilising war-ravaged Afghanistan. With External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj  indisposed, Finance Minister
BSF personnel outside Amritsar’s Golden Temple on Friday | PTI
BSF personnel outside Amritsar’s Golden Temple on Friday | PTI

AMRITSAR : The two-day Heart of Asia summit will begin here on Saturday with the focus on stabilising war-ravaged Afghanistan. With External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj  indisposed, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will represent India in the group’s sixth ministerial conference.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani will jointly inaugurate the ministerial deliberations on December 4. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Foreign Policy Advisor Sartaj Aziz is scheduled to  attend the conference on the same day. However, no bilateral meeting is expected during the conference as New Delhi has already clarified that it has not officially received a request for any bilateral meeting from Islamabad.


Over 40 foreign ministers and dignitaries from China, Russia, Iran, UAE, USA, Canada and France besides the EU will participate in the conference. The last Heart of Asia ministerial conference which was held in Islamabad in December 2015. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended that conference.


The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was founded in Istanbul in Turkey in November 2011. Fourteen Asian countries attended it.

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