National 1 (Spotlight Weekly)

Translating Rhetoric Into Action

The Foreign Ministers meet provides momentum to the SAARC process but nothing significant is likely to come out

By BHAGIRATH YOGI

Amid usual fanfare, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the 23rd meting of the SAARC Council of Ministers at posh Hotel Soaltee in the Nepalese capital on Wednesday. Expressing satisfaction over the progress made in the implementation of most of the decisions of the 11th Summit held in Kathmandu in January this year, Mr. Deuba - who is also the current chair of the SAARC-- said the SAARC† activities in the field of poverty alleviation have accelerated and several important meetings have been held. "While we have made good progress in a number of areas, there is much to be desired in consolidating regional economic cooperation," said the premier.

Prior to the two-day Council of Ministers meeting (Aug. 21-22), the standing committee meeting of the SAARC comprising Foreign Secretaries made a number of recommendations to be adopted by the Council of Ministers.

Besides promoting economic cooperation and expanding cooperation towards poverty alleviation, one of the major focus areas in this week's meeting has been evolving common position to fight terrorism in the region. At the end of the two-day meeting, the standing committee on Tuesday recommended the ministerial level body to update and make effective the 15-year-old SAARC Convention against Terrorism so as to make it compatible with the post-September 11 scenario.

To this end, the meeting agreed to constitute a legal advisory group in order to make the SAARC convention on terrorism more relevant, concrete and result-oriented. The officials also agreed to hold a meeting of police chiefs of all the seven member countries in the Nepalese capital on August 28- 29. The SAARC Convention provides for extradition of suspects and freezing of assets, among others.

But, experts say evolving a common approach to fight the scourge of terrorism in the region will not be an easy job. "While India blames Pakistan of supporting cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, Pakistan terms them as 'jehadis' or freedom fighters. So, first of all there should be a clear-cut definition regarding† who is a terrorist," said Yadav Kant Silwal, former Secretary-General of SAARC. Added Nilamber Acharya, former Royal Nepalese ambassador in Sri Lanka, "The SAARC Council of Ministers' recent efforts to update the 1987 Convention against terrorism is a welcome step. Now, the member countries should also agree on norms such as not allowing to use one's territory against other country and work jointly against international terrorism.'

Besides terrorism, the Secretary-level meeting gave priority to poverty alleviation, enhance economic cooperation and matters relating to education, tourism, information and communications, and increasing the effectiveness and result of the SAARC activities.

According to spokesman of the SAARC meeting, Puskar Rajbhandari, the standing committee meeting also approved the proposal on poverty alleviation presented by the SAARC Secretary General Q. A. M. A. Rahim. The meeting also passed proposals to develop the SAARC region into a tourist destination at the national, regional and international levels and make the SAARC integrated work plan more systemic and fruitful.

A secretary level meeting will be held in Kathmandu during September 2- 4 to seek out ways for improving the economic activities by wiping out weaknesses and shortcomings in the industry and commerce sectors of the region and providing support to the poverty alleviation program, Mr. Rajbhandari said. He added that an agreement was reached on discussing matters relating to decreasing customs duty and other taxes and increasing the list of goods enjoying subsidized facilities at the secretarial level meeting. The standing committee meeting recommended the foreign ministerial meeting for further deepening the existing tariff concessions ranging from 5 to 100 percent and widening the basket of 5,500 commodities during the fourth round of South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) negotiations next month.

Unlike in the 11th Summit (January 4-6) this year, the media attention was not very much focused on the two nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan. Though there were no indication of bilateral talks between the two neighbors, both India and Pakistan expressed commitment to further accelerate the SAARC process. "This forum provided an opportunity for both the Indian and Pakistani leaders to meet informally and exchange pleasantries, besides taking part in formal regional meetings. This would, in a way help ease tensions between them," said a senior Nepalese foreign ministry official.

Though SAARC houses one-fifth of the total humanity--- majority of them poor, there haven't been any effective cooperation among the members to fight poverty, illness, education and unemployment, among others. There could be a number of areas of cooperation including transfer of technology, education, protecting environment and reducing the fatality from natural disaster which would benefit all the member countries. "But the SAARC forum has become the hostage of Indo-Pak hostility and has failed to move forward in a number of where cooperation could be expedited," said Silwal. "As the current chair of SAARC, Nepal should take a lead in this direction."

As the 12th SAARC summit is to be held in Islamabad next year, easing of tensions between India and†† Pakistan has become a must to continue the SAARC process. "Due to its closeness with all the member countries and neutral position, Nepal will do its best to ease tension in the region and promote concrete cooperation in the socio-economic sector," said Gyan Chandra Acharya, spokesman at the Foreign Ministry. For this, analysts say, what was needed is a strong leadership at Shital Niwas which is very much lacking at the moment.