Bangladesh pins hopes on last-minute SAARC deals

When all doors seem shut on the possibility of signing the much-expected connectivity-related deals in the 18th SAARC summit, Bangladesh sounds sanguine.

Nurul Islam HasibSumon Mahbub and from Kathmandubdnews24.com
Published : 26 Nov 2014, 04:48 PM
Updated : 26 Nov 2014, 05:01 PM

“The leaders may discuss the issue during the retreat (Thursday),” Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told a group of journalists on Wednesday after the summit was adjourned without signing the deals.

This has been viewed as the failure of this summit.

“We are still hopeful,” the foreign minister said.

There was a slot for singing agreements at 12:35pm Wednesday, but the chair of the summit Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala adjourned the two-day meet until Thursday.

It became clear quite early that two of the three deals related to road, railway and energy cooperation would not be signed.

But there had been last-moment hectic parleys to get at least the energy cooperation deal through, because it was essential for the electricity-starved region.

The foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday continued even after the official dinner, but they could not agree.

It was known that Pakistan blocked them saying it was not ready “internally”.

The leaders will spend the morning of Thursday, the last day of the summit, at the retreat at the Dwarika’s Resort, Dhulikhel, 30 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu.

They will come back in the afternoon for the closing when they will adopt the joint ‘Kathmandu declaration’ and set the dates and place for the next summit.

Foreign Minister Ali believed the leaders would come into an agreement during their retreat discussions.

He, however, said some countries could not complete their internal process, unlike Bangladesh that did by clearing those in the cabinet, to ink those deals.

He said details of the progress on those deals had been mentioned at the report of the foreign ministers’ meeting which was adopted at the inauguration of the summit.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has offered to host the next summit based on Islamabad’s experience of holding the 4th and 12th summits.