The Eleventh SAARC Summit

The confidence with which the Nepali establishment under Sher Bahadur Deuba has sent its special emissaries to friendly SAARC nations in order to extend formal invitations to the leaders of those countries urging them all to attend the eleventh SAARC Summit in Kathmandu gives one the impression that by then things in Nepal will have come under the firm grip of the government here. While one has to admire the courage exhibited by the Nepali side for the eleventh SAARC Summit, one would also wish to suggest the government in Kathmandu that utmost care has got to be taken at that time since most of the top-hats of the SAARC nations will be participating in the said congregation, and that any minor lapses in the security system at time of the Convention might not only embarrass the Kathmandu government very badly but would also cause panic in and among the participating leaders at the conference. However, we trust the confidence seen in the present day leadership of Nepal and can thus remain assured that the impending SAARC Summit will come to a happy conclusion, despite the changed political scenario here due to the imposition of a state of emergency.

The said Summit is taking place well after the lapse of almost three years or so and hence one could hope that the present SAARC leadership in Kathmandu will expedite the pending matters related to the welfare of the teeming billions belonging to this part of the world and will make-up the Himalayan loss that was there due to the postponing of the Summit, for known and unknown reasons. However, what is more than assuring is that finally the two arch-rivals of this region, India and Pakistan, have formally assured Kathmandu of their active participation at the impending SAARC Summit. It is time that the leaders of the countries other than those from India and Pakistan impress upon the Indian and the Pakistani leadership not to impede the process of the SAARC movement on counts of their very bilateral animosities of the highest order. As very good and intimate friends of both India and Pakistan, Nepal wishes that an early settlement to the Kashmir problem is reached in between the two warring rivals and the entire South Asian region takes a sigh of permanent relief. The smaller countries of the region have reasons to become terrified from their big neighbors for both, India and Pakistan, possess fatal nuclear weapons. It is high time that both the countries at time of this gala gathering must assure their smaller neighbors that in no way they would trigger the button first or at best will never use the weapon(s) that possesses the potential to ravage the entire region at least ten times, or even more.

It is really very unfortunate that till to date that most of the SAARC nations have not been air-linked causing immense damage to such sectors as tourism, trade, business, culture, etc. and more so at the people to people level. What has got to be understood here by all the leaders of the SAARC is that the people inhabiting these countries possess immense love and respect for each other despite their governments at times differing with each other on trifling matters. In essence the lack of this air-link arrangement in between and among the SAARC nations has got to be discussed and brought into effect at the earliest so that a sort of direct contact among the population of SAARC nation materializes.

Finally, we hope that the scheduled Summit in Kathmandu proves to be a milestone in the relations of the nations engaged and involved in the SAARC movement, and that the Summit talks and discusses and comes out in favor of the poverty stricken masses of this part of the region. Simply posing for photographs with all smiling faces for the consumption of the population of South Asia would not work. Let the SAARC leaders prove that the entire SAARC process was not merely poor-men's club but more than that.

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