NEW DELHI, 5 April 2007 — The South Asian leaders wrapped up a two-day summit yesterday signing two agreements and adopting a declaration. The agreements pertain to the establishment of a South Asian university and a food bank.
The leaders vowed to boost efforts to thwart terrorism and establish a $300 million development fund for infrastructure and other projects. They also pledged increased cooperation to fight poverty.
The leaders of the countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) said they would step up efforts to fight all forms of terrorism, including its financing and associated drug trafficking and illicit arms trade, a statement issued at the end of the two-day summit said.
The key points of the declaration included the SAARC’s decision to “collectively overcome the challenges of poverty, disease, natural disasters and terrorism.”
The leaders condemned “the targeted killing of civilians and terrorist violence in the region and agreed to implement all international conventions relating to combating terrorism.”
Saying that countries within the SAARC were ready to transform the regional grouping into an effective body, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed the need to focus on the basic needs of the people of the region. These, Manmohan said, could be addressed while working on viable, regional projects.
Speaking at the concluding session Manmohan said, “The summit has given us a new sense of purpose and the hope that we can live in peace. I believe that a new dawn is breaking over South Asia and that we are all set to fulfill the promise and vision of SAARC.”
The eight-page declaration “gives SAARC a wider mandate to promote peace and development in our region, including through greater connectivity — in trade, in the movement of people and through the flow of ideas,” Manmohan said.
“The heads of state or government emphasized that in the third decade of existence, there was an urgent need to move SAARC from declaratory to implementation phase,” the declaration said.
The bloc “emphasized the need to develop a road map for a South Asian Customs Union and a South Asian Economic Union in a planned and phased manner,” the declaration added. The bloc also approved observer status for Iran alongside the United States and the European Union at its next summit in the Maldives in 2008, despite objections from Western nations.
China, Japan, South Korea, the European Union and the United States had already been granted observer status and attended the April 3-4 New Delhi meet.
Giving utmost priority to the welfare of people of South Asia, the SAARC leaders agreed to build a “partnership for prosperity and work toward shared economic cooperation, regional prosperity, a better life for the people of South Asia, and equitable distribution of benefits and opportunities of integration among the people and the nations.”
To accomplish these objectives, SAARC members “agreed to the vision of a South Asian community, where there could be smooth flow of goods, services, technologies, knowledge, capital, culture and ideas,” the declaration said.
The declaration acknowledged “challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition” faced by SAARC nations. “In order to cope with emergencies caused by natural and man-made calamities and food shortages... the food bank will supplement national efforts to provide food security to the people of the region.”
Observing that “many sections of women and children” continue to remain disadvantaged, the declaration “emphasized that women’s empowerment should be a major objective of regional cooperation.”
Expressing satisfaction over the timely ratification of SAFTA (South Asia Free Trade Area) agreement by “all member countries,” the declaration called for its finalization in the services sector at the earliest possible.
Referring to the importance of implementing trade facilitation measures, the declaration called for a “comprehensive agreement on harmonizing customs procedures.”
A SAARC standards coordination board would function as a precursor to the SAARC regional standards body.
“I cannot agree more that the touchstone of our efforts to reinvigorate SAARC must be the difference we make to the lives of the poorest of the poor,” the Indian prime minister said.
