NEW DELHI, 2 April 2007 — Terrorism will figure strongly at this week’s summit of eight South Asian nations, including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, an Indian official said yesterday.
After a preparatory meeting of top Foreign Ministry officials from the region, India’s Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said they would recommend “a very strong statement against terrorism” to the summit, which will be held April 3-4 in India.
The issue affects most countries in the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, Menon said.
India and Sri Lanka have been battling armed insurgencies for decades, while officials in Afghanistan have repeatedly said Taleban leaders are orchestrating attacks in Afghanistan from Pakistani territory, a charge Pakistan denies.
India also accuses Pakistan of training and arming militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, a Himalayan region divided between the nuclear-armed neighbors but claimed by both. Pakistan says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the rebels it calls freedom fighters.
“We are recommending to the council (of foreign ministers) and the summit a very strong statement, not only of implementation of what we already had agreed, but to see what further action we in the sub-region can take against terrorism,” Menon told reporters. Last week, Menon said Sri Lanka had told host India that it intended to raise this issue at the summit.
Sri Lanka has been battling separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels since 1983. Last week the rebels launched their first-ever air strike on an air force base near Colombo’s international airport. Member countries have ratified a SAARC Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism, and agreed on an additional protocol in 2004 about action against financing of terrorism.
Among other issues that were fine-tuned by the foreign secretaries was the formation of South Asian University. With the “clean text” on this nearing its “fruition,” it is just a little away from being given the final shape, Menon said.
In addition, each member country has pledged to SAARC over and above its assessed amount of contribution. “India has quadrupled her pledge,” Menon said.
Regarding SAFTA (South Asia Free Trade Area), Menon said that SAARC members were trying for its “early implementation.”
On what was preventing earlier implementation of SAFTA, Menon said all the countries were favoring it except one. “SAFTA has been operational since July 1 last year. All the countries are in favor except one and differences with it are being looked into,” he said. Pakistan has cited Kashmir-issue as one of the factors responsible for its differences with India on SAFTA. SAARC — which groups India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives — was set up in 1985 to promote economic cooperation.
Progress, however, has been slow because of rivalry between India and Pakistan. Afghanistan is joining as a new member this year. The South Asian region is home to one fifth of the world’s population and has some of the world’s poorest people.
