By: Itrat Naqvi,
As
usual, Modi once again spoiled an international event aimed at strengthening
regional peace and security by resorting to Pakistan bashing. Despite being a
seasoned politician he remained unable to hide his hatred and venomous views
against Pakistan. At “Heart of Asia” conference he even betrayed Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani to resort to Pakistan bashing. Ashraf Ghani opened the conference by snubbing a $500 million
pledge from Pakistan for development projects in Afghanistan, saying "We
need to identify cross-border terrorism and a fund to combat terrorism.
Pakistan has pledged $500m for Afghanistan's development. This amount can be
spent to contain extremism. Afghanistan suffered the highest number of
casualties last year. This is unacceptable... Some still provide sanctuary for
terrorists. As a Taliban figure said recently, if they had no sanctuary in
Pakistan, they wouldn't last a month."
Pakistan had laid down
the foundations of Heart of Asia Conference with the collaboration of Turkey
six years ago. The Heart of Asia was
established to provide a platform to discuss regional issues, particularly
encouraging security, political, and
economic cooperation among Afghanistan and its neighbors. This region-led
dialogue was launched in November 2011 to expand practical coordination between
Afghanistan and its neighbors and regional partners in facing common threats.
The United States and
over 20 other nations and organizations serve as “supporting nations” to the
process. 6th Ministerial Conference of Heart of Asia summit was held in Amritsar, India, from
December 3 to December 4, 2016. The meeting was inaugurated by president of
Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani and Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi,
Russia
supported Pakistan viewpoint at the said conference. Addressing the Heart of
Asia conference in Amritsar Russian envoy Zamir Kabulov said that Sartaj Aziz’s
speech at the conference was friendly and constructive. Despite provocations by
Modi and Ghani, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said
peaceful resolution of all longstanding issues is the only way forward for
boosting regional cooperation and connectivity.
The Adviser said Pakistan is ready to extend every kind of cooperation for
stability and development in Afghanistan. He said Afghanistan should avoid
leveling false and baseless accusations on Pakistan.
Ghani has started to tow the line of his predecessor Karzai. He
also fell prey to Indian hostile propaganda against Pakistan. Under the guise
of friendship India is providing arms and financial assistance to Taliban and
splinter groups in Afghanistan. It is also supporting Afghan Taliban in
Pakistan. By doing so it is achieving its objective of undermining Pakistan's
regional role and spoiling Pak-Afghanistan relations. Terrorism is a common
threat to Afghanistan and Pakistan. India is abetting regional terrorist groups
in Afghanistan and Pakistan to spoil regional peace and stability which is main
agenda of Heart of Asia conference. Ashraf Ghani must revise his Pakistan
policy which is being dictated to him by Modi, a staunch enemy of Pakistan. At
the end of the day, it is Afghanistan and Pakistan cooperation that can
eradicate the menace of terrorism from the region by ousting spoiler – Modi led
India – from the overall peace process and reconciliation. Because spoilers
will continue spoiling the peace as he did at the recent conference.
The article was
originally published in National Herald Tribune.
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