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Kathmandu Friday December 28, 2001 Paush 13, 2058.
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Nepal keen to mediate in Indo-Pak fracas
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Dec 27 – Nepal would consider mediating to
resolve the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan if the opportunity arose,
although the Himalayan Kingdom has not made the proposal in this regard.
This was stated by Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharat Mahat on
Thursday while briefing the media about the forthcoming 11th SAARC Summit in Kathmandu.
"The Summit would not be affected by the bilateral conflict between the two
neighbours. If anything the Summit will help ease the tension."
Speaking about the Summit (January4-6), Dr Mahat said that
Nepal would push for achieving tangible results from the Summit of the seven South Asian
nations, and for this purpose the Kathmandu Declaration would be smaller than the past
such Summit declarations. "The declaration will be smaller than in the past; it will
be more futuristic and business-like," said the Finance Minister, who is working as
an informal Foreign Minister in the absence of any Cabinet-rank minister to head the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba holds the additional charge
of Foreign Ministry.
The main focus of the Summit, reiterated the Finance
Minister, would be on promoting regional economic cooperation so as to make it more
futuristic and result-oriented, social aspect and terrorism. The Minister said that South
Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) would be discussed and admitted that due to the stalled
SAARC process, the earlier deadline of signing the SAFTA framework treaty could not be
met.
The SAFTA treaty was to be signed by 2001 but the 11th Summit
scheduled to be held in November 1999 was postponed and the regional grouping was in
unprecedented limbo since then. "We want that SAFTA be endorsed by 2002/03,"
said Dr Mahat.
He revealed that the Group of Eminent Persons (GEP) has
submitted its report with their vision of establishing South Asia economic union. The
report would be first be discussed by through the Standing Committee (Foreign
Secretary-level), SAARC Council of (Foreign) Ministers and ultimately will be taken up by
the Summit leaders.
Lamenting that despite possessing one-fifth of the world
population and one of the excellent entrepreneurship, the SA was one of the poorest
regions. SAARC would try to correct the asymmetry between potential and reality.
Speaking about terrorism, the Minister said, the Summit would
express a stronger commitment to eliminate it in the context of global, regional and
national terrorism.
The Minister also said that nearly all physical, logistic and
substantive preparations for the Summit have been completed and added that the security
for the Summit would be foolproof. In this regard, the government has to limit access to
the media for security reasons, said he.
When asked what would be the main achievement of the Summit,
Dr Mahat mentioned the reactivation of and accelerating the stalled SAARC process.
Replying to yet another question, he said that SAARC has not ruled out sub-regional
groups, "rather it has endorsed them."
Meetings leading to the SAARC Summit formally kick off
tomorrow with the meeting of Programming Committee for which the remaining four
delegations are expected today. Bhutanese and Sri Lankan delegations arrived yesterday.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Gyan Chandra Acharya will lead the Programming Committee.
Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya will represent Nepal in the Standing Committee and
Dr Mahat himself will be in the Council of Ministers’ meeting.
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