Heart of Asia

The sixth edition of ‘Heart of Asia- Istanbul Process of Aghanistan‘ conference, an annual regional gathering of Asian and other countries was held in Amritsar, Punjab (India).

About Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process

The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was jointly launched by the Afghanistan and Turkey in 2011 to encourage the Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries to play a constructive role in establishing peace and stability in Afghanistan; and thereby achieving regional stability. There were three main elements behind establishment of Istanbul Process.

• The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, followed by reduced international engagement and aid after 2014 had put a question mark on future of Afghanistan. This had necessitated the integration of Afghanistan in the regional economy and improving its relations with neighbours and extended neighbours.
• Allowing Afghanistan to set its own agenda in regional perspective.
• Afghan problems are not just product of its own and they affect not just Afghanistan but also the other nations in the region.

The conference on Istanbul Process was first held in Istanbul, Turkey in 2011. It was followed by Kabul, Afghanistan (2012); Almaty, Kazakhstan (2013);and Beijing, China (2014). 2015 conference was held in Islamabad and next 2016 is expected to be held in New Delhi.

Participating Countries

Istanbul Process has 14 member countries viz. Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the UAE. Further, there are more than 20 supporting countries and few supporting organizations such as UN, SAARC, NATO, SCO and OIC.

Focus Areas

The countries in the Istanbul Process discuss and talk on political consultation involving Afghanistan and its neighbouring nations. The other focus areas include:

• A sustained incremental effort to implement the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) identified in the Istanbul Process document.
• Seeking to contribute and bring greater coherence to the work of various regional processes and organisations, particularly as they relate to Afghanistan.

The 2016 Conference

2016 Amritsar Conference was inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. It concluded with adaptation of Amritsar Declaration with its prime focus on terrorism. The delegates from nearly 40 countries and leading groupings like EU participated in conference. Indian delegation was led by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The theme of this edition of the conference was “Addressing Challenges, Achieving Prosperity”.

The three big issues of the conference were

• countering terrorism to create stability in Afghanistan
• Providing Afghanistan connectivity to strengthen economic activities and
• the development which is essential for its progress.

Amritsar Declaration

• Terrorism: It is the biggest threat to peace and security. It needs to be ended in all forms of terrorism and all support financial and safe havens providing sanctuary to it.
• Expressed concern over violence caused in Afghanistan and region by terrorists groups like Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Daesh (ISIS) and Jaish-e-Mohammed. It also mentions Haqqani Network.
• Drug menace: There is urgency to respond to the nexus between drug menace and its financial support for terrorist entities in Afghanistan.
• CCIT:Early finalisation of the draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism (CCIT).
• Early meeting of experts must be held to discuss a draft regional counter terrorism framework strategy, recently prepared by Afghanistan for its early finalisation.
• Connectivity:Reiterated strong support from Heart of Asia countries for use of Afghanistan’s location to enhance wider and regional economic cooperation.
• Specific initiatives for regional connectivity including Iran-India-Afghanistan trilateral agreement on developing Chabahar were acknowledged
• OBOR:Welcomes the MOU on Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt (OBOR) and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road between China and Afghanistan.
• International community and ANDSF: Welcomed agreements between the international community and Afghanistan for continued financial support to the Afghanistan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) until 2020.

Evaluation of achievements so far

Initially, the process had some achievements for Afghanistan. It served as only forum for Afghanistan to set its own agenda of reconciliation. It has been providing an open door for the participating member’s interaction. However, later this Istanbul process proved to be nothing more than a talk shop and its performance has been slow and tardy due to unclear foreign policy of the Afghan government and lack of political will at highest levels in the administration. The presidential elections and the post 2014 situation had further affected the process and raised questions from participating countries about future of the Process. The other reason for slow nature of the Process was due to conflicting agendas of the participating members. While Pakistan was not happy with India’s inclusion, China, Russia, and Iran view it as a way of US dominance in the region. Further, Af-Pak tensions have created some issues in recent past in bilateral relations of the two countries.