Heart of Asia Summit- How India plans on cornering Pakistan

Both Afghanistan which is the permanent chair and India the co-chair would corner Pakistan on the issue of terrorism.

New Delhi, Dec 3 The Heart of Asia summit gets underway and all the focus would be on the visit by Sartaj Aziz, the strategist and advisor to Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. Aziz will be attending the summit on Sunday and India says that there is no bi-lateral that is on the anvil.

All eyes would be on the summit since it is the first high profile visit by a Pakistani senior diplomat post the Uri and Nagrota attacks. The two day summit starting today will see the participation of representatives from 14 countries.

Indian officials say that barring Pakistan all other countries are on the same page. Both Afghanistan which is the permanent chair and India the co-chair would corner Pakistan on the issue of terrorism.

An official in New Delhi informed that the draft declaration on counter-terrorism would be circulated and Pakistan would be called on to stop harbouring terrorists and sponsoring terrorism. Pakistan would however not be named in the draft declaration, the official also added.

Cornering Pakistan:

India would look to corner Pakistan at the summit. India has been raising the issue about state sponsored terrorism by Pakistan on several forums and this summit would be no different. The official says that terrorism would be the main focus and Pakistan without being named would be called upon to do more on this front.

Pakistan needs to play a more proactive role in curbing its proxies so that there is stability in the region. The same point would be raised by Afghanistan as well. A meeting between the Afghanistan President and the Indian Prime Minister is scheduled to be held today.

Pakistan on the other hand is likely to rake up issues against India as well. Aziz who will be part of a two member team from Pakistan will talk about stability in the region. In this context one must also recall the statements made by Aziz a few days back in which he had said that Pakistan is in touch with anti India elements to keep up the pressure on New Delhi on the Kashmir issue.

Afghanistan in particular would set the tone at the summit and emphasise on the need for stability in the region. Afghansitan has already said that terrorism is created in this region and it is only here that the solution lies.

OneIndia News