Pakistan likely to be isolated at Heart of Asia meet

December 03, 2016 10:00

Amid heightened tension with Pakistan following yet another brazen terror attack on an army base, India is likely to step up efforts to corner it diplomatically and mobilize support for concrete action against state-sponsored terrorism at the two-day Heart of Asia conference beginning in Amritsar today.

Being held in the wake of the brazen Nagrota terror attack, the annual conference of the Heart of Asia Istanbul Process, a platform to assist Afghanistan in its transition, will extensively deliberate on threat from terror networks operating from Pakistani soil and may push for some concrete action to deal with it.

The conference will be attended by representatives from over 30 countries including China, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Iran. Pakistan Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz will represent Islamabad at the conference.

On Sunday, the main conference will be jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani where both India and Afghanistan are likely to corner Pakistan on terror.

The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was launched in 2011 and the participating countries include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.

The countries which support the initiative are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Britain and the US. Four countries Uzbekistan, Latvia, Bulgaria and Austria are attending the conference as guests.

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