Summit Uncertainty
THAT Pakistan on Monday announced a postponement of the 12th
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit comes as an unfortunate
development for the regional body. It is not the first time that a SAARC summit has been
postponed, though. In seventeen years of its existence, only 11 summits have taken place-a
telling fact that SAARC top leaders have not been able to come together every year as is
envisaged by the body when its charter was framed in 1985. The postponement of the
Islamabad summit is nonetheless even more surprising in that for the first time in the
history of SAARC a tentative time for the next summit was decided by a summit itself: the
11th SAARC summit, held in Kathmandu early this year, had decided to hold the next summit
in mid-January 2003 in Pakistan. In announcing the postponement, Pakistan has said that
because of the little time left to make formal preparations and the continued Indian
refusal to confirm its participation, it was not in a position to hold the summit slated
for January 11-13. India, on its part, had earlier been saying that it would not attend
the summit unless important regional trade pacts such as the SAPTA and SAFTA were
implemented effectively in the region. Whatever the reasons for the postponement, Nepal,
is understandably disappointed at the turn of events. As a Nepalese foreign ministry
source told this paper, Nepal hoped that the setback was temporary.
There is some consolation in the Pakistani foreign ministry's
assurance that the host nation would set up new date for the summit after having
consultations with the member nations. Nepal, as the current chairman, must try to make
all efforts to get India and Pakistan sort out their differences. SAARC must not be held
hostage to any divergence of views between any two countries in the grouping. Though there
may be legitimate criticisms against SAARC for its tardy pace in tackling the most urgent
issues facing the over one billion people in the region, making SAARC work is even more
important than ever before. As Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand told the 18th SAARC
Charter Day function on Monday, the challenges brought about the recent developments in
the international arena can be best coped with through a more integrative regional
approach. He pointed out that there has been ever more consolidation of regional economic
groupings in the last decade. Indeed, regionalism pays, as it has shown elsewhere in the
world. As summits provide a mechanism to boost SAARC activities, the uncertainty over the
next summit must end as soon as possible.
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