New Delhi
31 March 2007
Domestic concerns on Saturday threatened to cast a shadow over
the 14th SAARC Summit with Pakistan remaining reluctant to embrace South Asian Free
Trade Area agreement and Sri Lanka voicing the desire to get the regional grouping to
adopt a counter-terrorism initiative against non-state actors like Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam.
Nepal was not untouched by domestic developments too. The tussle over portfolios in
the proposed interim government forced its foreign minister KP Sharma Oli to cancel his
visit to New Delhi for the 28th Council of Ministers meeting on April 2. He was scheduled
to arrive on Saturday evening. Sources did not rule out the possibility of a new foreign
minister accompanying Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to New Delhi on
Sunday evening and representing Nepal in the Council of Ministers meeting.
On the opening day of the standing committee meeting the Sri Lankan side raised the
issue of acts of violence perpetrated by LTTE and sought a concerted effort by SAARC to
revisit certain legal instruments like the Convention on Suppression of Terrorism. The
Pakistani delegation, in turn, was not particularly forthcoming on the SAFTA agreement.
Alluding to Pakistan's reluctance to operationalise SAFTA with India, Foreign Secretary
Shivshankar Menon told a news conference that an "overwhelming majority" of member-
countries have implemented SAFTA and discussions would continue to get the others to
implement it as well. He remained optimistic that it will be sorted out.
Notwithstanding domestic issues threatening to weight down the Summit, Mr Menon said
that the proposals for setting up a South Asian university and a regional food bank were
"near fruition" and "ripe" for signing of agreement. Another issue on which the standing
committee unanimously made a "positive recommendation" was Iran's application for
becoming an observer in SAARC.
Incidentally, the SAARC Summit comes at a time when a majority of India's neighbours,
who are members of SAARC, are at varying stages of ushering in real representative
democracy. The proposed interim government in Nepal will set the date for the election
of constituent assembly, which will formulate the new constitution and decide on the fate
of King Gyanendra and monarchy as a whole. Bhutan will go to polls in 2008, Maldives
is taking tentative steps holding multi-party election next year, parliamentary election is
due in Pakistan this year-end and the military-backed caretaker government in
Bangladesh is undertaking election reforms and rooting out corruption to pave the way
for free and fair election.
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