ISAS Briefs

On December 4, 2016 the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the Heart of Asia- Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) was held in the north Indian city of Amritsar and attended by over 40 delegations, including Russia, China and the United States. The meeting was inaugurated by the President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and co-chaired by India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Afghanistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Salahuddin Rabbani. Formed in 2011 as a platform for Afghanistan, and its neighbours, to discuss regional cooperation to promote stability, peace and prosperity, the initiative now includes over 20 other nations and organizations 'supporting' the process. The participating countries include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.