Simultaneous with the Organization for Islamic Cooperation summit in Pakistan, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar hosted an India-Central Asia Dialogue today in New Delhi, on the future of Afghanistan. The meeting had been pre-scheduled, before the OIC extraordinary session in Pakistan was announced.
Foreign ministers from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were in attendance. Jaishankar declared: “Our concerns and objectives in that country are similar. We must find ways of helping the people of Afghanistan.” India has invested approximately $3 billion in Afghanistan.
The Chabahar port route, a link from the Central Asian countries to India, was on the docket. (Chabahar, in southeastern Iran, abuts Pakistan’s Gwadar port.) India has supported a North-South corridor of highways and railways from Chabahar to Russia, going through Central Asia.
