Exchanging warmth for a peaceful neighbourhood: All that’s happening between India, Pak at Heart of Asia Summit

She had departed India two days back saying it’s necessary to hold talks with the Pakistan PM and his advisor to take forward bilateral ties between the two neighbours.

As she spoke from the Heart of Asia Summit table, MEA Sushma Swaraj’s diplomacy in Islamabad on Wednesday had a deliberate emotional overtone: “The heart of Asia cannot function if its arteries are clogged. We all must work together to clear it.” It most definitely struck a chord with everyone present at the summit, a gathering of high-ranking delegations from 14 participating states, 17 supporting countries and 12 international and regional organisations.

"Let me take this opportunity to extend our hand to Pakistan as well. It is time we display the maturity and self-confidence to do business with each other and strengthen regional and trade cooperation," she further went on to say reaching out to Pak PM Nawaz Sharif.

Swaraj also brought out one of the perennial problems between India-Pak-Afghanistan in her speech, terrorism. “Terror hubs should not be allowed anywhere,” she said.

On Afghanistan, a region The Heart of Asia summit was focusing this time, Swaraj said India wants the region to prosper through interlinked trade, transit, energy and communication routes.

"Nothing can benefit Afghanistan more than full and direct overland access to India’s markets. India is willing to receive Afghan trucks at Attari and can join Afghanistan-Pakistan Trade & Transit Agreements,” she said, also adding that India is ready to work with Afghanistan to strengthen the security forces as she sees it as a collective responsibility to fight terrorist forces.

Meanwhile, asserting that Pakistan firmly believed in the relation between peace and development, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said," Working for the achievement of a peaceful neighbourhood is a cardinal principle of Pakistan's foreign policy. We firmly believe that peace is vital for developed and development is vital for durable peace. Pakistan remains committed to strengthening its relations with all its neighbours and regional countries and promoting regional cooperation and connectivity."

He also spoke tough on terror. "Our consensus base military operation and the national action plan have been remarkably successful in our campaign against terrorism and extremism. We are convinced that terrorism and extremism is the common enemy of all and we need a collective approach to combat this menace," the Prime Minister said. His solution is to reach finalisations of borders and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) at the earliest “to contain terrorist movement across the border.” He also advocated a strengthened resolve against the emergence of Daesh (ISIS).

Notably, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the UAE are part of the initiative launched in 2011 for encouraging economic and security cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbours for dealing with the common problems of terrorism, extremism and poverty.

Six key areas in which the 14 countries have been pursuing confidence-building measures since the 2013 Almaty meeting are disaster management, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, trade and investment, regional infrastructure, and education.