Bangladesh shines at SAARC summit

Bangladesh has displayed considerable diplomatic dexterity at the recent SAARC summit in Nepal, though analysts remain sceptical about its ultimate outcome.

The hype in the rundown to the 18th Saarc summit at Kathmandu evaporated after the inaugural session, when none of the expected deals could be signed.

But among the eight member states, Bangladesh stood out in performance.

Even after the summit was adjourned without signing on Wednesday, foreign minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali sounded optimistic in an interview to bdnews24.com.

“The leaders may discuss the issue during the retreat,” he had said. “We are still hopeful”.

The framework agreement on energy cooperation was a priority for the electricity-starved Bangladesh

“Bangladesh has pressed at the last moment for energy cooperation and finally realised it,” Prof Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of a Bangladesh-based research group, Centre for Policy Dialogue, told bdnews24.com.

“This (the deal) is positive for the SAARC,” he said, though he believed implementation was always a challenge for this grouping of the world’s “least integrated” region.

The framework deal was signed after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen handshaking with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in a retreat on the second morning of the Summit.

Pakistan had blocked those deals initially at the SAARC foreign ministers’ meeting.

“Bangladesh has perhaps contributed much to bringing all the parties together,” former ambassador M Humayun Kabir told bnews24.com.

The summit was marked by a meeting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines.

But it is not clear whether she pressed Pakistan into signing the energy cooperation framework deal.

Former ambassador Kabir, however, said: “Bangladesh has displayed little bit of its diplomatic dexterity in the process (of getting the deal signed) and that is a good contribution it has made”.

“We went for what we thought was most important for us”.

The Modi factor

All eyes were on India’s new Prime Minister Modi who has spoken a lot about his neighbourhood policy to bring the region closer.

This was his first SAARC summit and he had a chance to emerge as leader of whole of South Asia.

Ambassador Kabir who served in India, China and the US in his diplomatic career believed Modi missed the opportunity.

“This summit provided him a chance to show that he is a leader of South Asia and not just India, but he failed to do that,” he said.

“Modi could have shown his leadership by overriding his bureaucracy to give South Asia a new direction by unilaterally taking some initiatives that could shake the region. But he has not been able to do that. What he said was very incremental in nature,” Kabir said.

Kabir said Modi could not show something dramatic or radical that would be “collaborative” in nature

“In my view he missed the opportunity”.

He said the SAARC had gone into “a static scenario now”.

“Pakistan will say what they want to say, India will also say what they want to say, nothing extra-ordinary comes out of SAARC”.

“It does not change the big story,” Kabir said, despite Modi announcing three to five year business visa for the SAARC member states and easy medical visa.

Ambassador Kabir, who is currently a vice-president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), said nothing extraordinary is required for such announcements.

Modi, however, continues to interest CPD executive director Prof Rahman.

“I think he wants to do something which was reflected in his speech. He spoke on destroying the wall of differences that is positive”.

He, however, believed that any change in the region “India has to take the lead”.

“SAARC decisions have to be implemented at their ministry level,” he said.

He said in a member driven organisation like SAARC, someone has to take the lead. “And India has to take that role”.

“We must hope India will take it (SAARC) forward with some unilateral initiatives”.

Implementation challenge

Though the framework deal was signed on energy cooperation, ambassador Kabir said there was still a long way to go before it's implemented.

“It’s a framework deal. It’s a first stepping stone for building energy cooperation in South Asia”.

“But of course its framework will pave the way for real energy cooperation”.

Prof Rahman said failure to sign the motor vehicle and railway connectivity deals has created “frustration”.

“But energy framework deal was positive”.

He also found some positivity in the 36-point declaration -- specially the mention of a meeting of SAARC transport ministers in three months to finalise the pending agreements for approval.

“The major problem is slow implementation. Even its (SAARC’s) institutions are too weak to implement its decision”.

“I have not seen any effective step to overcome this (implementation) challenge”.

He said investment, communication, people-to-people contacts and energy connection would be needed to enhance the intra-regional trade of this region, which is a major focus as it is still less than 5 percent.

“Pressure from business is a positive," Prof Rahman said.

He said democratisation of the region was “positive” but there was still “weakness” in using it for deeper integration of the region which was the theme of this year’s summit.