Jaishankar arrives in Dushanbe to attend conference on Afghanistan

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan on Monday to attend the 9th Ministerial Conference of Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) on Afghanistan.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan on Monday to attend the 9th Ministerial Conference of Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) on Afghstan.

"Touchdown in Dushanbe. Look forward to my bilateral visit and attending the Heart of Asia Conference tomorrow, Jaishankar wrote in a tweet.

"Visited the Dushanbe-Chortut Highway Project site. Good work being done by @BROindia under our grant assistance. The 8-lane highway will decongest Dushanbe," Jaishankar tweeted.

During his visit, he will have discussions with his Tajikistan counterpart Sirojiddin Muhriddin covering all aspects of the bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

Jaishankar will attend the HoA-IP in Dushanbe on March 30 at the joint invitation of Foreign Ministers of Afghstan and Tajikistan. He is also expected to meet leaders of other participating countries on the sidelines, MEA said.

The 9th Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process conference is part of the Istanbul Process - a regional initiative on security and cooperation for a stable and peaceful Afghstan - that was launched on November 2, 2011, in Turkey.

External Affairs Minister had earlier visited Dushanbe in June 2019 to attend the 5th Summit of Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, MEA added.

( With inputs from ANI )