Aim For Summit
SOUTH Asian Forum for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) may not exactly be in
tatters, but it is easy to agree with the view that at present it is going nowhere. With
the SAARC summitry mechanism in limbo, SAARC is rudderless. The 11th SAARC summit that
Nepal was to host late last year did not take place because India requested for
postponement of the summit following the installation of a military government in
Pakistan. This hiatus in summitry has meant that the heads of state or government of the
SAARC Seven, who meet discuss and try to find solutions to the problems of the one billion
people of the region in annual meetings, have not met for the last 30 months. If this does
not indicate the current total stoppage of the SAARC vehicle, what does? Considering the
fact that SAARC indeed has the potentials to achieve much for the common good of the South
Asians in the seven countries, any effort to revive the SAARC is most welcome. Endeavours
of Sri Lanka, the current chair of SAARC, in this respect thus have to be greeted with
appreciation. Sri Lankan Minister for Foreign Affairs Lakshman Kadirgamar has been
discussing with Nepalese leaders the possibility of holding the meetings of SAARC Charter
bodies including the postponed 11th summit.
Following talks, both he and Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola have
stressed the need to give continuity to the ongoing activities of SAARC. That is a good
approach to take. While all-out efforts to have the summitry back on the track should
continue, the lower-level meetings like the technical committee meetings should not be
allowed to suffer because summits are not happening. This is especially important as Mr.
Kadirgamar did not sound very optimistic about the summit taking place soon. The silver
lining is that SAARC technical committee meetings as well as the meeting of the Standing
Committee, which has foreign secretaries of the seven countries, in all probability will
begin to take place, with Indian participation, in the first quarter of next year. The
target is to hold these meetings in the first four months of next year with the first
taking place early next month in which India will also participate. Hopefully, when the
Sri Lankan minister visits Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives on the next legs of his
trip, his efforts to revive SAARC will receive further boost. Overall, however, the
efforts must aim for seeing the long-frozen summit to take place in Kathmandu.
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