NATIONAL 4 - (Spotlight Weekly)

‘We Are Now Encountering The Complexities Of Promoting Regional Cooperation’

— NIHAL RODRIGO

Nihal Rodrigo is the secretary-general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Rodrigo is working hard to ensure that SAARC summit, which could not take place last year, is held soon. Taking time out from his busy schedule, Rodrigo spoke to KESHAB POUDEL and SANJAYA DHAKAL of SPOTLIGHT at the SAARC secretariat on various issues of regional significance. Excerpts:

How do you foresee the future of SAARC?

SAARC has tremendous potential. But bringing together such a large region like South Asia, which has so much of asymmetry and so many problems, is not easy. There is a commitment on the part of leaders of South Asia to develop the region.

Can there be any comparison between SAARC and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)?

Up to a point, there is similarity in the sense that both are based on the idea that a region with common history, geography and culture should work together. The only difference is that ASEAN has been in existence for the past 33 years while we are only celebrating our 15th anniversary on December 8. As such we are still fairly young. But looking at the development of SAARC, though people are sometimes critical, saying it has been rather slow in growing, in actual fact it has got deeply into controversial and difficult issues only in the last nine or 10 years. So even in this short period, I think, the achievements are reasonably good and show prospects for accelerated development.

Can smaller nations of South Asia like Nepal feel optimistic about SAARC?

Yes. I would think so because the whole idea of SAARC is that although there are large countries like India and small countries like Maldives, by pooling their human and material resources together, and a certain commitment, the small countriescould benefit as well. In fact, if you look at decision-making, it is a unique association in that every country has a veto. For example, if Maldives says it cannot attend a summit in Kathmandu on a certain date, then the summit is put off. To that extent, smaller countries have power that is equal to that of all.

It is not possible for SAARC to be fully effective unless India and Pakistan normalize their relations. When do you think such a situation might come?

As for the first part of the question, it is obvious that better relations between all countries whether India or Pakistan or any other, will certainly benefit SAARC more. As far as the question of normalizing relations between India and Pakistan is concerned, they do have normal diplomatic relations -- they have ambassadors in each other’s capitals, they have normal meetings and they attended the SAARC senior officials encounters of the functional kind in Colombo recently. But, of course, there are a number of difficulties. As to when the relations will be as they have been at the best of times, it is not for me to judge.

Do you think the cancellation of the SAARC summit last year could have been avoided?

That is a difficult question to answer. As I said before, even a small country has the right to say that a date is not suitable for the summit and call for its postponement. In this case, India took the decision that they did not want the summit to take place in November last year and wanted time, as the Foreign Minister of India said for "the dust to settle". We have to wait till all the countries agree on the date. So, the question whether that could have been avoided is difficult to answer because circumstances were such. There was no alternative for SAARC and for Sri Lanka as chairman. After quickly consulting with all the countries, we found there was no unanimity on holding the Kathmandu Summit in November 1999. We are now continuing consultations to see when the new date can be fixed on a basis of unanimity.

When do you think the next summit might take place?

I am not an astrologer or a prophet, so it is not possible to give a date. But I am hopeful because right through the region there is a strong sense that SAARC is vital and must go on. After the postponement of the summit, I visited all the capitals and talked with leaders people at different levels, including those at the highest levels, and all of them expressed firm commitment that they will do everything possible for the logical development of SAARC. But until we have all the seven countries agreeing to a common date, the summit cannot take place.

In a situation where SAARC remains an institutionally weak organization, how do you think the nations of South Asia will be able to withstand the pressures of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the coming years?

I don't think South Asians are not doing anything -- certainly they can do more. If you look at the results of the last meeting in Colombo, at the working level, the association is moving towards SAPTA [the South Asian Preferential Trade Area], SAFTA [South Asian Free Trade Area] and so on. Looking at multilateral fora like WTO, for the first time in the last two years there has been intense consultations and assessments among SAARC countries. They are analytically pooling their knowledge, getting legal advice and so on. Now we have achieved in SAARC, certain common positions on WTO issues. These are SAARC positions instead of India’s position or Nepal’s position. I think such solidarity helps smaller countries in the WTO. For example, in Nepal’s application for membership, all the other countries of SAARC have indicated that they support Nepal.

Don't you think SAARC should amend its charter to permit the discussion of bilateral issues?

The SAARC charter was agreed to by all seven countries in 1985. Similarly for amending the charter, all seven must agree. There are a number of people, including academics and some political leaders who say bilateral issues must also be taken up. Pakistan makes the point that the association must take up bilateral relations to go on. On the other hand, countries like India say bilateral issues should be left out. You have to have the agreement of all the seven countries to amend the charter to include bilateral issues, or to make any other changes, for that matter.

Some important issues like the convention on trafficking of women were set to be approved at the Kathmandu Summit. What have become of them now?

That was one issue raised and discussed during the senior officials’ meeting in Colombo. If you remember, the convention was ready for signature in Colombo. But it was felt that it is Nepal which has the major problem in women trafficking. If it was signed in Kathmandu it would send a big political signal, Sri Lanka’s president felt that if Nepal was interested in having the convention signed in Kathmandu, Sri Lanka would have no objection. But unfortunately we lost one year. My recommendation is that without waiting for the summit -- on which we don't know the exact date -- we sign it in Kathmandu as soon as possible with the ambassadors of the SAARC countries, the Foreign Secretary of Nepal and two representatives from Bhutan and Maldives. Although at Colombo, senior officials went along generally with this idea, they felt that as this was a summit decision, officials could not decide on it. So I have passed this on to the Sri Lankan foreign minister who will consult with his South Asian counterparts. My own feeling is that this will be agreed to, but I don't know when this would happen.

Do you think South Asian leaders have not fully realized the importance of regional cooperation?

No, I do think they all do realize the value, the imperative of cooperation. But the thing is that regional cooperation is not so easy. From the early stages of SAARC, everybody was fully committed to various concepts. It is only now that we are really discovering some of the complexities of implementation. For example, look at the idea of establishing a free trade area in South Asia for which the decisions have been clean. It was only during a meeting last year in Kathmandu that we started looking in detail at the draft treaty prepared by the secretariat following comments of SAARC Chambers and studying agreements of the European Union, AFTA and so on. Once you had frank discussions, the problems surface – such as how do you chart the time-frame, how do you protect least developed countries like the Maldives and Nepal as against large economies like India, how soon do they bring down tariffs. Then the question of loss of revenue and customs once you have free trade also comes up -- how that could be tackled, whether a fund should be set up. Likewise, how do you define rules of origin. Nepal is having discussions with India for example with regard to movements of cigarettes and photo materials. How do you reconcile bilateral agreements within the regional FTA? So regional cooperation is difficult. Only now are we encountering full the complexities of embarking on regional cooperation. SAARC has come to the point beyond commitments, beyond declarations -- to actually start dealing with practical issues in implementation. When you dig, at first you will encounter the soft top soil after which you will hit the hard ground.

Do you agree that we have lost one precious year?

Yes. It was indeed a loss but we did not lose it fully. We had some minimal activity. There was some compensation from civil society which was involved in a massive amount of activity. In Kathmandu, for example, though there were feul official meetings taking place, I go to different meetings every week -- whether it is on empowering women, on IT, onlegal issues, HIV/AIDS and so on. There is a strong feeling among civil society, professionals, people, that South Asia has to work together and that there are commonalties that need to be developed.

South Asia, and particularly India, has a large pool of Information Technology (IT) experts. Does SAARC have any plans to make use of them for regional development?

Obviously India is the leading country in this regard. India has proposed to have a meeting of ministers of science and technology. At the private level, at a recent meeting of business leaders in Karnataka, India, many major IT firms were willing to give full or partial scholarships to people from other SAARC countries and train them on IT. During the meeting called SummIT 2000 that was held in Kathmandu this year with participation from experts from the region, it was agreed that a South Asian Association of IT Institutes be formed.

South Asia has a huge population that lives below the poverty line. How do you view the prospects of regional cooperation to alleviate poverty?

This is an important issue. Each country has its own unique poverty alleviation program. So it might be difficult to have a single program that covers the whole region. Poverty alleviation is than important part of development. You can have very good growth rates, but if you leave out even a small section of population, even political problems, like insurrections can occur. To examine all the complex issues involved, there is a proposal to convene a meeting of planning ministers, finance ministers. Pakistan has offered to host the meeting. Secondly, we are working on a Social Charter, in which we will fix certain realistic but not idealistic targets. Realistic targets for health, children, nutrition, education and so on which are all important requirements to combat poverty.

How do you feel about your personal contribution to SAARC?

That, of course, is for others to judge.