Heart of Asia conference began in New Delhi

The Heart of Asia (HoA) conference began on 26 April 2016 in New Delhi.

The conference was attended by officials of a number of countries including Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry.

Earlier, Pakistan hosted the fifth Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference in Islamabad on 9 December 2015.

Key elements of HoA

• To devise a sustained, incremental approach to implementation of the Confidence Building Measures (CBM) in Afghanistan. The officials are set to deliberate on them during the conference.
•  The objective of the conference is to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and to speed up its reconstruction with a focus on enhancing investment and connectivity to the country.

About Heart of Asia conference

• The Heart of Asia conference is a part of Istanbul Process.

• The Istanbul Process was established on 2 November 2011 to provide a platform to discuss regional issues, particularly encouraging security, political and economic cooperation among Afghanistan and its neighbours.

• The first HoA ministerial conference was held on 2 November 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.

• The second HoA ministerial conference was held on 14 June 2012 in Kabul.

• The third HoA ministerial conference was held on 26 April 2013, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

• The fourth HoA ministerial conference was held on 31 October 2014 in Beijing, China.

• The fifth HoA ministerial conference was held on 9 December 2015 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

• The 14 participating countries in HoA process are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and UAE. The supporting countries include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Iraq, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, U.K., U.S. and the E.U.

• The supporting countries to the process are: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, European Union, France, Finland, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

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