The government is strongly considering sending External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Islamabad next week for the ‘Heart of Asia’ conference on Afghanistan, sources have told The Hindu .
While a final confirmation is expected by the weekend, Indian and Pakistani officials said the proposal was “likely” to go through. The move comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif met on the sidelines of the U.N. climate change conference in Paris, and would mark the first visit by a Cabinet Minister in the NDA government to Pakistan.
Mr.Modi has already accepted an invitation to attend the SAARC summit in Pakistan next year, which would make him the first Prime Minister to visit Pakistan since 2004.
In November, the Pakistan government had sent an invitation to Ms.Swaraj to attend the ministerial part of the Heart of Asia conference, which is an annual donor conference to discuss Afghanistan, scheduled for December 7-9 December in Islamabad.
If Ms.Swaraj is not able to go for the conference, sources confirmed the government would assign another minister, and some alternative names including that of Minister of State for External Affairs General V.K. Singh are being thought of. .
The delegation to the conference on December 7 will comprise Joint Secretary Gopal Baglay and India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha, and Ambassador to Pakistan TCA Raghavan, while the ministerial conference on December 9 awaits the final clearance.
Officials told The Hindu there were several reasons that pointed to the likelihood of Ms. Swaraj’s visit. To begin with, India would like to show its commitment to development in Afghanistan by sending a senior representative, especially given Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has confirmed his participation. Secondly, India will host the Heart of Asia conference next year, and it would like to receive the maximum participation from the fourteen members of the regional group that includes Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Tajikistan,Turkey, Turkmenistan, and the United Arab Emirates.
The visit could also pave the way for reopening engagement with Pakistan that fell through after NSA talks were cancelled earlier this year. One of the issues then was Pakistan’s insistence that NSA Mr. Sartaj Aziz would also meet with Ms. Swaraj. If Ms. Swaraj travels to Islamabad next week, it would be more than likely that she would meet with her counterpart while there, as well as PM Nawaz Sharif.
