This conference is crucial as it would discuss the role of regional powers in the development of Afghanistan after the slated withdrawal of NATO forces and presidential elections in that country in 2014.

A team of senior officials has already left for Almaty on Thursday for the senior officials meeting. The Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is expected to be in Almaty on Friday for the Ministerial Conference.

Khurshid will be accompanied by the Special Envoy to the Prime Minister for Afghanistan, SK Lambah, Additional Secretary in the Indian External Affairs Ministry Yash Sinha and India’s Ambassador-designate to Afghanistan.

The Ministerial Conference is the third in the series of the Istanbul Process. The first conference was in Istanbul in November 2011 and the second was in Kabul in June 2012.

India is among the 14 regional partners in the Istanbul Process. Other regional players are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and the UAE.

The Ministerial is likely to discuss three broad issues, namely political, confidence building measures (CBMs) and coherence in terms of actions of the regional organizations so that there is no overlap or duplication of activities of these organizations.

There are six CBMs that were agreed to in Kabul Ministerial last year. These relate to counterterrorism, counter-narcotics, disaster management, trade, commerce and investment opportunities , infrastructure and education.

India had taken the lead in the trade, commerce and investment CBMs and hosted an Investment Summit conference in Delhi in June, last year.

There are 16 supporting countries to the Istanbul Process namely Australia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States

There are other supporting members which support the Istanbul Process like Agha Khan Development Network (AKDN), Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), European Union (EU), North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the United Nations (UN).

After the Ministerial Conference at Almaty, the Indian External Affairs Minister will leave for Moscow for the annual inter-sessional meeting of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission (IRIGC). He will co-chair the IRIGC alongwith the Deputy Premier of Russia Rogozin

Both the leaders are likely to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations in terms of trade, economic, commercial, science and technology matters and cultural cooperation. He will also meet course when the External Affairs Minister is there he will also take the opportunity to meet with other senior members of the Russian leadership including his counterpart the Foreign Minister of Russia Lavrov.