Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani jointly spoke on terrorism, hitting out at Pakistan for sponsoring sanctuaries to the terrorists who continue to destabilise the South Asian region.

“Terrorism and externally induced instability pose the gravest threat to Afghanistan’s peace, stability and prosperity. The growing arc of terrorist violence endangers our entire region. As such support for voices of peace in Afghanistan alone is not enough. It should be backed by resolute action. Not just against forces of terrorism, but also against those who support, shelter, train and finance them,” Modi said while inaugurating the summit-level meeting here on Sunday.

Modi said silence and inaction against terrorism would embolden terrorists and their masters, calling upon the international community to demonstrate “strong collective will” to defeat the terror network.

Ghani said no amount of money could assist the war-torn country if there was support to terrorists by Pakistan, and proposed the creation of a fund to combat terrorism.

“Military operations in Pakistan have brought about selective displacement of terrorists. The state-sponsored sanctuaries exist in Pakistan. Taliban also say that they cannot sustain themselves for more than one month without support from Pakistan,” Ghani said addressing the conference.

Enhanced connectivity Modi also proposed an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, Afghan-controlled” process, which, he said was necessary to establish lasting peace in Afghanistan.

He also stressed the need to improve connectivity networks between Afghanistan and other countries of the region.

“We cannot deny that the more connected Afghanistan is with the regional arteries of trade, capital and markets, the more assured would be its economic growth and progress. President Ghani and I have converged on the priority of strengthening trade and transport linkages with other partners in the region,” he added.

Air corridor He also highlighted the development of connectivity routes between Zeranj-Deleram highway and India-Afghanistan-Iran cooperation on Chahbahar Port that will enable Afghanistan to link its economy with centres of economic growth in South Asia and beyond.

The issue of creating an air corridor between both countries was also discussed during a bilateral meeting between Modi and Ghani.

India is hosting the conference for the first time. The Indian delegation was led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Ministers of State for Foreign Affairs VK Singh and MJ Akbar.

The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process was founded in November 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey, with the objective of creating a platform for bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan. It consists of 15 participating countries, 16 supporting countries and 13 supporting regional and international organisations.

While Afghanistan is the permanent chair, the co-chair continues to change among the participating countries. The last meeting was held in Pakistan.

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