Heart of Asia Summit: Indo-Pak foreign secretaries to meet in Delhi

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, who is going to lead his country's delegation to the Senior Officials Meeting of the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process, is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Subramaniam J Shankar, in New Delhi on Tuesday.

According to a statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office, since its inception in 2011, Pakistan has continued to play an active role in the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process.

The Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process is a platform to discuss regional issues, including security, economic cooperation and connectivity among Afghanistan, its neighbours and regional countries with a view to promote lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan jointly hosted the fifth Heart of Asia ministerial meeting in December 2015.

The conference adopted a forward looking Islamabad Declaration entitled "Emphasizing Enhanced Cooperation for Countering Security Threats and Promoting Regional Connectivity".

It is being speculated that Pakistan's agenda for the forthcoming event is promotion of long term peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan delegation is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with other leading delegations attending the meeting.

A meeting between the Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries to restart the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue (CBD) was derailed after the Pathankot terror attack.

Since then no date for talks between the foreign secretaries were decided, but both sides have been in touch regarding the matter.

India is expected raise the issue of investigation the Pathankot attack, apart from discussing modalities of resuming the CBD.

The foreign ministers of both the nation had met during SAARC summit in Nepal in November last year. But then the Pathankot attack acted as a speed-breaker in the talks process.