By IANS,
New Delhi : Backing a regional approach to stabilising Afghanistan, India has invited over a dozen countries, including Pakistan and China, for a regional investors meet’ in New Delhi June 28 to boost international private investment for the reconstruction of that country.
If Pakistan accepts, it will be the first time it will participate in an India-led initiative on Afghanistan, a country that is often seen as an arena of rivalry between the two neighbours.
The investors meet is primarily aimed at spurring private sector investment by roping in countries of the region, but India has also invited ministers and officials for the conference. Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul is expected to lead his country’s delegation at the conference, in which over 50 Afghan companies will participate.
“Yes, I would like to confirm that all countries which were participants of the Istanbul process are being invited and that includes Pakistan too,” Syed Akbaruddin, the external affairs ministry’s spokesperson, told reporters here.
India has pledged $2 billion for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which has not gone down well with Pakistan, which is prone to see that country as part of its strategic backyard.
India and Pakistan haven’t discussed Afghanistan in their bilateral talks so far, but there is indication that there is a move in that direction.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari briefly met External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in Beijing Thursday on the sidelines of the SCO summit and inquired about India’s activities in Afghanistan. Krishna explained that India was focusing mostly in areas of capacity building, education and health.
The decision to hold a regional conclave is part of India’s emerging regional approach towards stabilising Afghanistan in the run-up to the phased withdrawal of international troops from that country by 2014. At the 12th summit of the June 6-7 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Beijing, India backed a bigger role for the SCO in Afghanistan.
The investors’ meet in New Delhi appears to have the backing of the US.
The New Delhi conference will then submit a report to a July 8 summit in Tokyo that will develop strategies for Afghanistan’s economic development, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told a think tank in Washington.
Afghanistan would be one of the key issues of discussion when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna for the strategic dialogue in Washington June 13, Blake said.