ISLAMABAD, 21 July 2004 — South Asian foreign ministers began talks yesterday on boosting trade and security to lift the region’s 1.4 billion people out of poverty, seizing on the momentum of fresh dialogue between the nuclear giants.
Pakistani Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain inaugurated the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC) 25th Council of Ministers.
“Let us resolve that SAARC must become a symbol of peace and progress, not only to ensure stability in South Asia but to win the hearts and minds of the people of this region,” Shujaat said.
Exploratory talks among senior officials since the January summit have brought new momentum to the normally sluggish 19-year- old forum, which groups Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
“SAARC has started to exude new confidence and its international profile has enhanced,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said in his opening address.
The seven nations represent one-fifth of humanity and one of the world’s poorest regions.
Tensions between South Asia’s giants India and Pakistan have been blamed for crippling trade and development among South Asia’s poverty-stricken 1.4 billion people, who earn an average $450 a year.
The two-day meeting is focussed on reducing poverty by freeing up trade, sharing energy, promoting investment and jointly developing information technology and telecommunications.
The foreign ministers will also push forward a free trade agreement, under which barriers will start being broken down from January 2006.
“We are encouraged by the efforts that are being made to operationalize the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA),” Kasuri said.
“The huge market potential of South Asia would bring benefits to all member states, and would also enable us to attract investments and help accelerate our economic growth.”
Most attention will be on sideline talks between Kasuri and his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh today.
Natwar is visiting Pakistan for the first time since taking office in May in the new left-leaning Congress government.
