Wednesday, May 27 2015
Kabul (BNA) Afghanistan ministry of foreign affairs said the other day that the Istanbul Process which had been hosted by Pakistan was a good opportunity for trust-building among the regional countries. Attended by the Heart of Asian countries, foreign ministers this week, the fifth preliminary meeting for the Istanbul process was held in Islamabad to mostly focus on trust building among the regional nations.
Head of Strategic Researches Center (SRC), Faramarz Tammana lauded the meeting and said the Istanbul Process was a good opportunity to build trust among and expand relations among the regional countries. He said, while Afghanistan like other regional countries are fighting a joint threat, the Istanbul Process, with participation from the Heart of Asian countries representatives are following political cooperation strengths among the member nations. He said the ongoing challenges, the regional countries are facing with, was reasoned of war in Afghanistan, but it has root in the regional countries and there was a need for trust-building efforts among the related countries.
In the meeting, Sar Taj Aziz, Pakistani national security advisor said Afghanistan was significant for Pakistan and both countries are sharing economic and regional co-operation and what his country was committed for a developed Afghanistan and center of regional deals. Meanwhile, the House of People said the National Unity Government (NUG) might have suggested programs to the meeting to may help the country’s economy strengthened by the member nations’ co-operation in the future. The house also said the NUG might have talked on the regional co-operation expansion between Afghanistan and the neighboring countries and most importantly on their non-interference in the internal affairs of the country as Afghanistan had not interfered in other countries’ internal affairs. Likewise, hoping the meeting could help security restored in Afghanistan and the region, the house of people believed the meeting would help remove misunderstandings among the regional countries.
Akram Agah, a political expert also seen optimistic over the recently held meeting on evaluation of Istanbul Process asked the NUG should discuss programs to help development projects executed to could draw further aids through Afghanistan national budget as well the Istanbul Conference’s participants should have been asked for honest co-operation with Afghanistan in war on terror. Quoting the Afghan people he asked the countries attending the conference to focus on regional security restoration as their priority, as he believed security was one of the fundamental factors; not only for Afghanistan, but for the regional and world countries in general. So, the neighboring countries should honestly cooperate with Afghanistan in this field. Such would meetings would never lay positive impact on trust-building, unless the consequences were with practical aspect, as he blamed many similar conferences that had no positive impact in the past.
A Kabul citizen, Mohammad Reza said The Istanbul Process should provide the ground for the interested countries’ investments, as there are good investment opportunities in the country. The Istanbul Conference was held in Turkish Istanbul city in 2011, with objectives to create co-operation and restore peace and security in the regional countries, with the fifth one held in Islamabad, where representatives from 12 member countries, 16 supporting nations and 12 regional and international organizations. The meeting discussed agendas on economic and trade relations and drawing member countries’ cooperation in war on common threat. Suraya Raiszada
