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Kathmandu Tuesday December 04, 2001 Marga 19, 2058.
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Looking forward to Kathmandu
Summit
By Mohan Lohani
After a delay of more than two years the
eleventh SAARC Summit, which was to have been held in Kathmandu in November 1999, has been
rescheduled for early next month, that is, in less than five weeks from now. All member
states have confirmed their participation in the Summit. It is hoped that the SAARC
process will be reactivated, as the prolonged postponement of the Summit had led even
those closely associated with SAARC to react and comment in despair that the process that
began at Dhaka sixteen years ago had drifted into darkness. The suspension of the SAARC
process, to quote Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, former Secretary General of SAARC, was really a
great loss, in particular to the smaller states of South Asia.
The South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation or SAARC representing seven member states was launched in 1985 after more than
five years of exhaustive spadework at the level of foreign secretaries and foreign
ministries of the region. The Association, which will celebrate next week its 16th
anniversary, was an expression of common desire, to quote the Late King Birendra, to bring
about increased understanding and collaboration among member states in many fields of
endeavour with the objective of securing for the peoples of the region economic
advancement and social security. Considering the difficulties and problems confronting the
region such as divergent security perceptions, bilateral disputes, ethnic and religious
conflicts and diverse political regimes compounded by uneven levels of development, the
launching of SAARC was admittedly an epoch-making event with far reaching implications and
consequences.
It is true that for seven years (1985-1992)
marking the first cycle of cooperation, SAARC focused mostly on non-controversial
programmes of symbolic significance and refrained from embarking upon the core areas of
cooperation such as trade, finance and investment. Nonetheless, the initial years of SAARC
made some positive gains in regularising important meetings and consultations within an
institutional framework. The SAARC Secretariat headed by the Secretary – General has
been functioning since 1987 to monitor and coordinate the SAARC activities and carry out
other mandates issued by the Summits. The group of Eminent Persons’ (GEP) Report has
recommended that the status of the SAARC Secretary – General should be upgraded to
the Ministerial level as has been the case with ASEAN, and that there is a strong need to
professionalize the Secretariat as SAARC continues to move into core economic areas of
cooperation and expand its activities in social and cultural fields as well. The GEP
Report with its wide-ranging recommendations will most likely come up for discussion at
the forthcoming Summit. Besides, the host country Nepal has also done its homework on the
Summit’s agenda covering substantive issues of concern to the region.
SAARC Secretary-General Nihal Rodrigo
addressing a press conference recently in Kathmandu, informed that the three-day eleventh
Summit would focus on the entire gamut of regional concerns including an assessment of the
developments after the 10th Summit in Colombo and the signing of the two conventions
relating to protection of children and trafficking of women in South Asia. The issue of
terrorism will certainly figure prominently on the agenda, and the Summit is expected to
forcefully reaffirm its commitment to the 1987 SAARC Convention on the Suppression of
Terrorism and the need for its expeditious implementation, as the Convention has not been
effectively enforced owing to lack of enabling legislation in most member states of the
region. At the same time, it will be difficult for South Asia not to join forces with the
global coalition against terrorism. It may be recalled that all the States of South Asia
have already condemned, in strongest terms, the horrendous terrorist attacks on the US
last September. Host country Nepal, a victim of terrorist violence within its own
territory, has been forced to declare a state of emergency to deal with the growing
incidence of violence and terror resulting from Maoist insurgency, to maintain law and
order and to provide security to the people.
Poverty alleviation in South Asia is an issue
of no less significance and merits serious attention. South Asia, needless to point out,
is inhabited by over one billion people representing one fifth of humanity. A majority of
these people are steeped in abject poverty leading to inertia, backwardness, destitution
and utter helplessness. While SAARC since its inception has emphasised the need for people
–to-people contacts, the architects of South Asian destiny are its peoples who are
both agents and beneficiaries of development and change. Experts are of the view that
regional cooperation in core economic areas would be one of the most effective means of
reducing the high incidence of poverty in the region. It is a pity that the SAARC Three
– tier Mechanism on Poverty Alleviation which was set up by earlier Summits in
response to the Report of the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation
has not been as effective as expected. The Kathmandu Summit is thus expected to take a
decision to make the Mechanism operational and increase its effectiveness.
In the social sector, the Declaration of the
tenth Summit in Colombo envisages a Social Charter for which Sri Lanka has already
prepared a concept paper. Adoption of a Social Charter designed to achieve major
objectives such as poverty alleviation, population control, women’s empowerment,
youth mobilisation, the protection of children, human resources development, health,
nutrition, sanitation and safe drinking water will certainly go a long way in facilitating
social transformation and improvement in the region. The concept paper with necessary
amendments is likely to be endorsed by the forthcoming Summit.
Despite cynical remarks and critical comments,
SAARC which has already witnessed ten Summits has taken important decisions of far
reaching significance on major issues of regional concern. The SAARC spirit on a sustained
and predictable basis is crucial to regional cooperation and must permeate all its
activities. It is heartening to note that the SAARC spirit has been kept alive at Track
Two level even when SAARC’s formal meetings including the Summit are stalled. There
is a consensus that regional cooperation is the best possible means of realising the
tremendous potential that exists in the region. Since there is a sense of shared destiny
among the member states, the SAARC process must continue to consolidate the gains of
cooperation already made during the last decade and a half. Let us hope that the Kathmandu
Summit will prove to be a milestone in giving a new thrust to the SAARC process and
revitalising the regional organisation to achieve its goals and objectives.
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