Hina Rabbani to attend Istanbul Regional Conference

ISTANBUL: Foreign Ministers and international community to attend Istanbul Regional Conference being hosted by Turkey to ensure peace, security and development in Afghanistan, and the region, on Wednesday.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will lead Pakistan's delegation to the conference, she had already arrived here.

Pakistan attaches great importance to this conference and hoped that it will provide a platform to express region's solidarity and support for Afghanistan in its endeavours to establish peace and stability; an inclusive process of national reconciliation, consolidate its sovereignty and territorial integrity; and achieve socio-economic prosperity by undertaking mutually beneficial economic cooperation with neighbouring states, the region and the world.

Pakistan supports efforts for a secure, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan contributing to stability, security and prosperity in the region and participating in the Conference with the hope that it will bring prosperity to the region.

Pakistan hoped that Istanbul Conference should manifest in tangible terms its support for Afghanistan on the basis of established principles of inter-state conduct enshrined in the UN Charter and the international law as well as material, financial and technical support for socio-economic development.

In dealing with the existing challenges, the Conference should also affirm support for eliminating all forms and manifestations of terrorism as well as production and trafficking of drugs in psychotropic substances.

It is important that unity of purpose and the region's support for Afghanistan must be ensured through "consensus decision making" with the help of this conference.

The countries invited to attend the Istanbul Regional Conference include 14 regional countries of Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and UAE.

The non-regional countries that have been invited as observers are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Canada, Italy, Spain and Sweden, in addition to the UN and the European Union (EU).

The conference aims to bring to the discussion table issues relating to the transition in Afghanistan. The conference will also focus on regional economic development.

In the discussions leading up to Istanbul, several ideas have been floated ranging from some sort of regional security architecture to a regional political-cum-economic mechanism.

The outcome of the Istanbul Conference would be taken to Bonn where it would be coupled with long term commitments by the international community for continued engagement in Afghanistan and the region, including the New Silk Road initiative.

The Istanbul Conference was originally conceived as a meeting of regional countries about Afghanistan to reaffirm regional support to the secure, stable and peaceful future of Afghanistan.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011