EAM Jaishankar attends 6-nation India-Central Asia dialogue; Afghanistan also joins in

India on Wednesday, October 28, held the 2nd meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue between Itself and five other central Asian countries, Afghanistan was also present during the video conference as a special guest. The foreign ministers of all the above-mentioned countries gathered and discussed ways in which they could increase connectivity between their nations, as well as several other key issues.

Commonality in views and challenges 

During his opening statement, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar stated that all the countries in attendance shared a ‘commonality’ of views when it came to several domestic and international issues and on top of that they faced several common challenges like terrorism, drug trafficking and extremism. Due to these reasons, Jaishankar believed that all the present nations were natural partners.

As per a joint statement by all present countries, the Government of India unveiled a $1 billion line of credit for Central Asian countries which were to be used in developmental projects such as connectivity, energy, IT, healthcare, education, agriculture and etc. The statement released by all the countries also stated that the ministers present expressed continued interest in developing the transit and transport potential of their countries.

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In regard to terrorism, a challenge faced by all the countries present in the joint meeting, the statement read that all the members “strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”, the statement also reaffirmed the commitment of the countries to fight against the plague of terrorism by destroying terrorist safe haves and networks. In addition, the statement also claimed that it was of the utmost importance that a nations sovereign territory was not used as a staging ground for terrorist attacks on other countries.

Three of the five Central Asian countries present at the virtual meet share land borders with Afghanistan and due to that reason, the joint statement also urged for the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan to be resolved swiftly so that the gains made by Afghanistan in the last two decades were not lost.

(Image PTI)

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