SAARC FMs meet inconclusive

The SAARC foreign ministers have stretched their meeting beyond schedule on Tuesday to get at least one deal signed during the summit beginning on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told Bangladesh journalists at about 6.30pm that they would meet again after the official dinner.

This is an unprecedented event in the SAARC foreign ministers-level parleys that after concluding all agendas the meeting had been adjourned.

“We are trying to get the energy cooperation deal signed,” he said as the Nepal foreign ministry cancelled its scheduled briefing for foreign journalists.

Ali, however, ruled out any chance of signing the two other deals related to road and railway connectivity during the summit.

Though he did not name the country because of which those signing would not take place, it was an established fact in Kathmandu that Pakistan was not agreeing to sign those deals.

The signing does not mean that member states would implement those as it could not live up to their earlier promises that include implementing South Asian free trade regime and South Asian economic union.

But the signing would send a strong message across that the leaders could agree on a common goal of connectivity in the summit themed on ‘Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity’.

The foreign ministers will set the agenda for the two-day 18th summit where the leaders of the eight member states would gather amid tight security.

Even the movement of the accredited journalists has been restricted.

SAARC that unites South Asia, which according to an ADB study is the “least integrated” region in the world, has been criticised for not having any collective gains to show since it began functioning in 1985.

But this summit will be watched closely as influential India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a strong message of working together with the SAARC countries by inviting all heads of states in his swearing-in ceremony.

This is his first summit and before leaving New Delhi he in a statement said “development of close relations with our neighbours is a key priority for my Government”.

Analysts say the relations between India and Pakistan determine whether the regional grouping can move smoothly.

Bangladesh for timely implementation

Bangladesh stressed on “timely” implementation of the regional projects at the foreign ministers-level meeting on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali said they had taken a number of decisions to make the regional grouping “effective”.

The meeting approved the standing committee proposals.

Apart from, trade, economy, communications, energy, poverty reduction, climate change, combating terrorism, education and culture, regional cooperation, youths development have also been stressed in the meeting.

One research paper titled ‘Best practices in poverty alleviation and SDGs in South Asia’, two separate action frameworks on sanitation and nutrition and one publication on ‘Next steps to the South Asian Economic Union (SAEU)’ have been launched in the foreign ministers’ meeting.

The meeting instructed the SAARC Secretariat to take views of the member states to organise the summit at a particular time like the UN general assembly.

They also asked member states to submit the “request list” and “offer list” to the Secretariat under the SAFTA sensitive list reduction.

Bangladesh has already submitted those.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh has requested investments in tourism. “It’s open."

The foreign ministers asked the SAARC Development Fund Secretariat to take up innovative projects on energy and communications.

They agreed to publish a ‘SAARC Development Report’ biennially where member states would present their development outcomes.

They further asked for starting an inter-governmental process to put forward the collective views of South Asia in the formation of the post-2015 development agenda.

The ministers also agreed on making SAARC food bank functional by eliminating the “threshold limit” for the members.

The meeting analysed different projects of the SAARC Agriculture Centre based in Dhaka.

They also decided to transfer the two projects – Regional Support Unit (RSU) and Regional Epidemiological Centre (REC) – to the Agricultural Centre after their completion.

The foreign ministers stressed on making the South Asian University in New Delhi as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ and Bangladesh pushed for taking more students and teachers from the country.

South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) has been recognised as a SAARC body.

The moratorium of taking new SAARC observers will continue, the foreign minister said, while briefing journalists on the outcomes of the meeting.

Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque was present, among others, during the briefing at Hotel Soaltee Kathmandu.