Against the backdrop of food and fuel insecurity and threat of both terrorism and climate change, the South Asian leaders Saturday promised effective cooperation in all potential fields to fight hunger and achieve faster economic growth to improve the lifestyle of their impoverished people, reports UNB from Colombo.
The pledges were explicitly made at the 15th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The theme of the summit is 'SAARC: Partnership for the People.'
All the leaders reflected upon how to increase mutual cooperation in combating the challenges before the region through effective initiatives to increase food production, find out alternative sources of energy to ensure development, enhance intra-regional trade, combat terrorism and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change.
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said economic cooperation, connectivity and integration would be the cornerstone of SAARC in the future. "We have already agreed to move towards a South Asian Customs Union and a South Asian Economic Union in a planned and phased manner."
He praised the establishment of SAARC Food Bank in 2007 as a forward-looking decision, noting that all the member-states should now ratify the inter-governmental agreement.
Singh said the South Asian countries need to work towards a collective response that leads to a quantum leap in agricultural productivity, food-grain output and farm incomes so that the spectre of food shortage vanishes from the region.
The Indian Prime Minister apprehended that an unprecedented increase in oil and food prices risks jeopardising the region's development gains. "We should pool our resources to tap renewable sources such as solar energy, hydropower and wind energy, all of which South Asia has in abundance," he said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani said SAARC should envisage a network of intra-regional and trans-regional gas pipelines. Within SAARC an enabling environment for regional cooperation can be facilitated by concluding a regional framework agreement on energy cooperation.
In view of the global food crisis, Gilani said the SAARC-countries should develop a comprehensive regional strategy to ensure food security. "This is our common responsibility to the people of South Asia," he told the summit leaders, adding, "Together with other Asian countries, we should consider launching a Greater Asia Food Security programme."
Sri Lankan President and new SAARC chairman Mahinda Rajapaksa said most countries of South Asia are faced with curse of terrorism that threatens the peace and stability. He said that the SAARC-countries need to redouble their efforts for collective action to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."
He said, "It is important to remember the element of interdependence which is crucial for a durable peace and the protection of democratic values in the region."
President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, who is leading a country that seemed to be a powder keg amid US-led 'war on terror', said South Asia has to deal myriad problems like chronic poverty, food and energy shortages, environmental degradation; but "terrorism is by far the most menacing of all".
