The summit of many hopes
Syed Fattahul Alim | Tuesday, 5 August 2008
The 15th Summit of the 8-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) has ended in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. What is the outcome of the Summit that brought together the leaders of a region where one-fourth of humanity lives? Though during the two decades and three years long history of Saarc one cannot say that much has been achieved, still it cannot also be denied that the regional forum has not at least ceased to function against the backdrop of hostilities between the two Saarc members, who are also the two mightiest military powers of South Asia- India and Pakistan. Strangely though, they have always shown enough composure at the summits, in spite of everything. Such behaviour on the part of the South Asian leadership points only to their level of maturity, which is also expected of them as the leaders of one of the most potential regions on earth.
Of late, South Asia has undergone a big transformation. A new era has ushered in- an era of cooperation and accommodation all over the region.
In that exact spirit of enhanced cooperation in the region, the 15th Saarc summit has adopted the Colombo Declaration and signed four agreements on regional cooperation.
The two-day 15th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit closed Sunday afternoon in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo after adopting the 41-point Colombo Declaration and signing four agreements on regional cooperation on the establishment of a SAARC Development Fund, the creation of a South Asia Standards Institution, the accession of Afghanistan to the South Asian Free Trade Agreement and mutual assistance in criminal matters, which were signed by the SAARC member countries' foreign ministers in the closing session held Sunday afternoon.
The Colombo Declaration stressed the necessity of adopting the SAARC Action Plan and Dhaka Declaration on Climate Change.
It focused on collective regional efforts in core areas: food, energy security, trade, combating terrorism and climate change
It also called for regional cooperation for capacity building, development of Clean Development Mechanism projects and mass awareness. For addressing the growing energy crisis, the leaders called for developing the regional hydro-potential, grid connectivity and gas pipelines.
The main objective of Saarc, however, was to enhance economic cooperation among the member states through pulling down the various kinds of tariff and non-tariff barriers to open up trade and commerce among the member nations. Unfortunately, so far there have been more promises than performance and more talks than real progress in increasing the volume of trade among the member states. The much-talked-about South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) is yet to see the light of day, after it was conceived at the 2004 Saarc summit in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. This time, however, the South Asian leaders pledged to materialise Safta through withdrawing all the existing trade barriers with special emphasis on the least developed members of the forum.
To remove the sensitive lists as soon as possible, the summit in its communiqu
Of late, South Asia has undergone a big transformation. A new era has ushered in- an era of cooperation and accommodation all over the region.
In that exact spirit of enhanced cooperation in the region, the 15th Saarc summit has adopted the Colombo Declaration and signed four agreements on regional cooperation.
The two-day 15th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit closed Sunday afternoon in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo after adopting the 41-point Colombo Declaration and signing four agreements on regional cooperation on the establishment of a SAARC Development Fund, the creation of a South Asia Standards Institution, the accession of Afghanistan to the South Asian Free Trade Agreement and mutual assistance in criminal matters, which were signed by the SAARC member countries' foreign ministers in the closing session held Sunday afternoon.
The Colombo Declaration stressed the necessity of adopting the SAARC Action Plan and Dhaka Declaration on Climate Change.
It focused on collective regional efforts in core areas: food, energy security, trade, combating terrorism and climate change
It also called for regional cooperation for capacity building, development of Clean Development Mechanism projects and mass awareness. For addressing the growing energy crisis, the leaders called for developing the regional hydro-potential, grid connectivity and gas pipelines.
The main objective of Saarc, however, was to enhance economic cooperation among the member states through pulling down the various kinds of tariff and non-tariff barriers to open up trade and commerce among the member nations. Unfortunately, so far there have been more promises than performance and more talks than real progress in increasing the volume of trade among the member states. The much-talked-about South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) is yet to see the light of day, after it was conceived at the 2004 Saarc summit in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. This time, however, the South Asian leaders pledged to materialise Safta through withdrawing all the existing trade barriers with special emphasis on the least developed members of the forum.
To remove the sensitive lists as soon as possible, the summit in its communiqu