ISLAMABAD, 7 January 2004 — South Asian nations signed agreements on trade and terrorism yesterday aimed at improving the lives of one-fifth of the planet’s population.
Leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, long held hostage by the India-Pakistan conflict from achieving regional unity, said better relations between the two heavyweights would allow the region to finally catch up with more developed parts of Asia.
“I believe that this summit marks a key watershed in enhancing South Asian regional cooperation,” said Prime Minister Khaled Zia of Bangladesh, whose country will host the next gathering in January 2005.
Declaring the summit closed in a formal ceremony at Islamabad’s heavily-guarded Jinnah Convention Center, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali hailed agreements on counterterrorism, poverty alleviation and creation of a free trade area from 2006.
“These are watershed developments which will go a long way in promoting fruitful economic cooperation,” he said, praising the summit for “reinvigorating regional cooperation.”
Heads of state and government plus foreign ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka signed the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, a social charter, an anti-poverty plan, an updated counterterrorism agreement and the “Islamabad Declaration.”
The Islamabad Declaration “contains the road map for regional cooperation under SAARC,” Jamali said. “This is a future-oriented declaration of historic significance.”
The social charter on raising living standards and human rights was “a collective resolution on the need for economic and social cohesion,” Jamali said.
“It proclaims our commitment to collectively seek a better future for the peoples of our region.”
The poverty alleviation plan “provides a complete micro framework for national and regional efforts to address all issues relating to poverty,” the Pakistani premier said.
Adding a clause on sealing terrorist funding channels to a 1987 anti-terror agreement was “another landmark in eliminating the menace of terrorism from our region,” Jamali said.
The last time Indian and Pakistani leaders talked was in July 2001, in a bilateral summit that broke down in the Indian city of Agra.
Details of Monday’s talks were not revealed but Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said they included Kashmir, the disputed territory which has triggered two of their three wars and nearly sparked a fourth war in 2002.
Talks between Vajpayee and Musharraf capped a series of bilateral talks, which included meetings between Vajpayee and Jamali, their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries.
Apart from Zia and Jamali, Bhutan Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley, India’s Vajpayee, Nepal Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, and Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga gathered for the summit’s closing. Maldives President Mamoun Abdul Gayoom had to leave early on Monday for engagements at home.
From effusive exclamations of joy to cautious claims of skepticism, people on both sides of the heavily armed border between India and Pakistan reacted strongly to the unexpected announcement yesterday that their leaders would resume dialogue over Kashmir.
The disputed Himalayan province has been the flashpoint of two wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors and the focal point of a half-century of enmity.
Abbas Ansari, leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organization of political and religious groups seeking independence for Kashmir, or its merger with Pakistan, responded with great surprise.
“My eyes are brightened with delight and my heart is filled with joy,” Ansari said. “I had always hoped for this.”
People were so taken by surprise that an Indian government spokesman watching the hotly contested India-Australia cricket match on TV had to quickly switch channels to catch the news conference.
Kashmiri separatist leader Mohammed Yasin Malik, who heads the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, the guerrilla group that launched the Kashmir insurgency in 1989 but which has since put down its guns, called the announcement “a delightful piece of news.” “We have been hoping for this since Agra,” Malik said, referring to the failed summit. “Better late than never.”
In Pakistan’s commercial city of Karachi, Moiz Adam Ali, 55, a plastic sheet trader, said it was good to hear that Indians and Pakistanis might finally live in peace.
“This is in the interest of people of both the countries as their tax money may now be spent for development and not for defense,” he said.
However, Ali worried the peace initiative would be short-lived, as many previous attempts have failed. “They talk positively when they meet each other, but later change hearts and get aggressive,” he added.
— Additional input from agencies
