Sunday December 3, 2017
Kabul (BNA) 7th Heart of Asia Conference (HoA) was held Friday in Baku, capital city of Azerbaijan. Peace, security, counter terrorism and economic development in Afghanistan were discussed in the conference attended by representatives of 14 participating countries.
A number of experts and representatives of people in parliament believe that such meetings can be effective when commitments made by regional countries towards maintaining peace and counter terrorism in Afghanistan.
Hashimi, a member of Afghanistan House of People, has said Heart of Asia Conference could be facilitator of peace for Afghanistan, adding that the meeting could also provide facility to world countries to further assess situation in Afghanistan and the region.
“Such meetings have two positive impacts: first, good diplomatic relations are created with participating countries in the meeting and secondly, representatives of participating countries become aware of current situation of Afghanistan, but if I say the meeting will bring peace to the country, it probably won’t, but such meeting can provide facilities for peace in the country,” said Hashimi.
Meanwhile, a number of experts consider coordination between regional and world countries as key in maintaining peace and counter terrorism, but saying they hope HoA conference can have a practical platform for reaching peace in Afghanistan.
Haider Hemat, an Afghan political expert on regional affairs said: “I think HoA conference is a good initiative, but it has problems practically. I can say that such meetings might have positive impacts if we have active diplomacy and bring regional consensus between countries in the region, but unfortunately we are not able to create an intra – Afghan platform due to increasing violence and war in the country.”
Nevertheless, Afghanistan government considers ‘Heart of Asia’ process on Afghanistan as key, but Hemat says such meetings won’t be effective unless a big consensus is created for ending violence in Afghanistan and world and regional countries take honestly steps in this regard.
Related to effectiveness of Heart of Asia meeting, an Afghan political expert Kabir Ranjbar said: “Holding such meetings is good for regional convergence towards counter terrorism, economic development and maintaining peace in Afghanistan.”
He stressed that such conferences would not give positive results very soon as numerous national and international conferences have been held on Afghanistan, but unfortunately Afghanistan was still facing with increasing crisis of violence and war.
“If Heart of Asia meeting creates consensus between participating countries and Afghanistan in connection with a series of issues, it will be beneficial in future as most of regional countries want improvement of situation in Afghanistan and consider maintaining stability and security as good for the region,” said Ranjbar.
It is worth mentioning that the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process (HoA) was founded on November 2nd, 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. The process provides a platform for sincere and results-oriented regional cooperation by placing Afghanistan at its center, in recognition of the fact that a secure and stable Afghanistan is vital to the prosperity of the Heart of Asia region.
This platform was established to address the shared challenges and interests of Afghanistan and its neighbors and regional partners. The Heart of Asia is comprised of 14 participating countries, 17 supporting countries, and 12 supporting regional and international organizations.
Suraya Raiszada
