 |
Kathmandu Monday January 07, 2002 Paush 23, 2058.
|
SAARC process
The 11th summit conference of SAARC has just
concluded with a forward looking 58 point declaration that ranges the gamut from regional
cooperation in the economic, social and cultural sectors, through poverty alleviation,
issues of women and children and international political and economic environment to the
security of small states, terrorism and the date and venue of the next summit. The draft
framework treaty for the much talked about SAFTA is to be finalised by the end of this
year. Early finalization of the SAARC social charter is also mentioned. There is reference
to the need to evolve common positions on issues of shared interest in international
forums. A note of sobriety has been struck in the agreement among the heads of state or
government that the summits and all other meetings of SAARC need to be more business like
and result-oriented. The summit saw the signing of the SAARC Convention on Preventing and
Combating the Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution as well as the SAARC
Convention on Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of Child Welfare in South Asia.
Forward looking it may be, but the declaration shows growing realisation that regional
cooperation can only be an incremental, step by step process. This is nowhere more evident
than with regard to poverty alleviation, one of the main foci of the just concluded
summit. Even with the two conventions just signed, the SAARC Secretary General is first to
present a report on measures for their effective implementation to the next meeting of the
council of ministers. And clearly on the down side, the declaration, as expected, failed
to come up with any workable definition of terrorism or terrorists, another key issue.
At the end of the day a fair assessment of the
SAARC process after the 11th summit is that it is still on track, but only just. Cracks
are beginning to appear in the original consensus that made SAARC modalities possible. The
Prime Minister of Bangladesh rightly pointed out that no SAARC level project has yet seen
implementation. The Sri Lankan President came close to calling a spade a spade when she
said it would not do to continue with double standards when it came to terrorism. While
exclusion of bilateralism is a key tenet of SAARC, the President of Pakistan was at clear
variance with this when he called precisely for a more bilateral approach than in the
past. He also took to task the SAARC tradition of holding summits only if all seven heads
of state or government are available . And the Indian Prime Minister took the opportunity
to score political points against arch rival Pakistan, SAARC spirit notwithstanding. It
was this bilateral drama and the extension of a hand of friendship by Pakistan that stole
the show of course. But with the 11th SAARC summit first postponed for three years on
Indian behest and the tradition of SAARC retreat practically scrubbed this time (thereby
virtually ruling out any sidelines diplomacy) because of delayed schedules occasioned by
Indo-Pak differences, one thing is clearer now than ever before. The biggest power in the
SAARC neighbourhood will go along with the SAARC process only as long as its own national
agenda is not compromised. The moment such compromise threatens India is quite prepared to
give SAARC short shrift. That’s the shadow that SAARC now has to live under. |
