By Catherine Putz
The Indian Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, is also to attend.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Monday that he would be attending the Heart of Asia conference this week in Pakistan. Ghani’s initial efforts to achieve a rapprochement with Pakistan fizzled earlier this year as peace talks with the Taliban, facilitated by Pakistan, fell apart. The confirmation that the Taliban’s leader Mullah Omar had died two years ago in Pakistan not only sidelined Afghanistan’s efforts to smooth relations with Pakistan but also fractured the Taliban.
The Heart of Asia conference, part of the so-called Istanbul Process, will take place on December 8 and 9 in Islamabad. It is the fifth such ministerial meeting, with previous editions taking place in Beijing, Almaty and Kabul. At the heart of the Istanbul Process is an attempt to get regional states to work together on a multifaceted agenda that ranges from security to economics with peace in Afghanistan at the center of its efforts.
As Habib Wayand write today for The Diplomat “this week’s conference gives both Pakistan and Afghanistan a real opportunity to work out their differences and negotiate a settlement.” But Ghani isn’t taming his rhetoric just because he’s going to the conference,
According to TOLOnews, Ghani “said Pakistan has been in an undeclared war with Afghanistan for 14 years now and that peace needs to be secured between the two countries.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat