Bangladesh wants to see SAARC as ‘commoners’ forum

Bangladesh will stress on “proper and timely” implementation of the SAARC decisions in the upcoming summit as it wants to see the South Asian grouping evolve into an organisation of “common masses.”

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said this on Thursday while briefing journalists about SAARC’s 18th summit to be held in Kathmandu on Nov 26-27.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lead a 37-member delegation in the summit that drew much attention due to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who after coming to power, spoke highly about this regional grouping’s potentials.

Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and Afghanistan are the other members of this economic and political forum that started functioning from 1985.

But analysts say the association has no collective gains to show. Even its Secretary-General Arjun Bahadur Thapa in April, during his Dhaka visit, acknowledged “it could not live up to its expectations”.

The regional trade among SAARC counties are hovering around 5 percent only, compared to 40 percent among ASEAN group.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh wished to see SAARC play “more roles” for the development of common people of this region with “visible efforts”.

“We’ll emphasise proper and timely implementation of the decisions,” he said, “through which we believe SAARC can be turned into a common masses’ organisation.”

He said Bangladesh would lay importance on different issues mostly youth development, poverty alleviation, connectivity, education, food security, regional trade, and counter terrorism, for regional cooperation.

Themed on ‘Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity’, the SAARC annual gathering will be completed in four stages.

It will begin with the 46th session of the Programming Committee on Nov 22 followed by the 41st session of the Standing Committee on Nov 23-24, and 36th session of the SAARC Council of Ministers on Nov 25 before the main summit led by heads of states.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh would also attach importance on strengthening regional cooperation on SAFTA and service sector, climate change, science and technology and women empowerment.

Three agreements-SAARC motor vehicles agreement for the regulation of passengers and cargo vehicular traffic amongst member states, SAARC regional railway agreement, and SAARC framework agreement for energy cooperation (electricity)-are expected to be signed.

The minister believed those agreements would boost trade and connectivity among the countries.

Junior minister Md Shahriar Alam, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque, and Secretary (bilateral) Mustafa Kamal were present, among others, at the briefing.