New Delhi
6 December 2007
SAARC mulling rail corridor, ferry services to link India, Lanka; foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon says Australia, Mauritius apply for observer status in SAARC
A rail corridor between Chennai and Colombo and ferry services
linking Colombo with Kochi in Kerala and Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu is likely to be taken up
on priority for improving intra-regional connectivity within SAARC (South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation.)
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Thursday said that the SAARC Standing
Committee, which met in New Delhi over two days, has identified these and other
transport projects for immediate implementation. He hoped that those projects would be
off the drawing board in the next few months.
Also proposed is air connectivity between New Delhi and Male, in Maldives, a road
corridor linking Birgunj in Nepal with Chittagong in Bangladesh via Katihar in India and
another road corridor between Agartala and Chittagong. Mr Menon said that a list of
identified projects has been recommended for immediate implementation.
He said that Australia and Mauritius want to become observers of SAARC. "Both have
applied [for observer status,]" he said. The SAARC Council of Ministers will take a view
on the matter but a formal decision on whether to admit them as observers or not is not
likely before the next SAARC Summit. Maldives will host the 15th SAARC Summit next
year.
He explained that the SAARC was is the process of evolving a criteria for granting
observer status to interested countries. "There are guidelines [today but] formal criteria
has not been adopted so far," he said, adding that the interest shown by Australia and
Mauritius is proof of SAARC's potential. There are six SAARC observers today: the
European Union, China, South Korea, Japan, the United States and Iran.
Mr Menon said that the SAARC Standing Committee has decided to "operationalise" the
SAARC Development Fund "right away" with whatever money it has today. Its charter has
been agreed and an interim cell in the SAARC Secretariat will handle all matters related
to the fund. "We want to get it up and running," he said.
Besides transport links, telemedicine and immunisation projects will be placed before
the SAARC Council of Ministers, which will meet in New Delhi on Friday. The SAARC
University will come up in the National Capital Region (NCR) that comprises Delhi and
the satellite towns in the neighbouring states.
Mr Menon said that the Council of Ministers, comprising the foreign ministers of the
member-states, can be expected to discuss climate change "on the sidelines" of
Friday's meeting. "[It] affects us very deeply," he said, adding that efforts to evolve a
common SAARC position on climate change was set in motion when the delegations of
the SAARC member-states met in New York for the United Nations General Assembly
earlier this year.
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