COLOMBO: The 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit begins today under the theme “Partnership for our people” under the chairmanship of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at the Banadaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall today.
The summit is being held amid fresh clashes in which Sri Lankan troops killed 25 Tamil rebels. Two soldiers also died in combat in the island’s north, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.
Leaders yesterday began arriving ahead of the meet where heightened tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have seized center stage, diplomats said. Bhutan’s Prime Minister Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley, the first to arrive for the two-day summit, got a red-carpet welcome at the airport amid tight security.
The leaders slated to discuss boosting economic ties. But talks between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan — the highest-level meeting in 15 months between the bickering neighbors who have fought three wars — are expected to dominate proceedings.
The premiers’ urgent talks on issues threatening a four-year-old peace process were expected to take place after the ceremonial SAARC summit opening. It will be the first time Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani, who took office in March, have met.
Singh on Thursday called for cooperation among SAARC countries to face the “common challenges” and expressed confidence that the upcoming meet would provide impetus to implementation of decisions already taken.
“Today, there is a realization amongst SAARC countries that it is only by cooperating within SAARC that we will be able to strengthen ourselves individually and as a region and address the many common challenges that face us,” he said. Ties between New Delhi and Islamabad hit trouble after India blamed “elements” in Pakistan for the bombing of its Kabul Embassy last month. Singh will also convey to Gilani India’s concerns over last weekend’s blasts in the Indian commercial cities of Ahmedabad and Bangalore that claimed at least 50 lives as well as a spurt in frontier cease-fire violations.
India has not blamed Pakistan for the blasts, but Indian officials suspect the attacks were supported by Pakistan intelligence, according to local media. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said here Thursday the countries were not interested in blaming each other, and instead looked forward to normalizing ties.
