The Hindu : International : SAARC Ministers to meet on combating terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004

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International

SAARC Ministers to meet on combating terrorism

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JULY 19. Foreign Secretaries from SAARC countries tonight recommended a ministerial meeting on combating terrorism and trans-national crimes, including drug trafficking and decided to seek `observer' status at the United Nations.

The Standing Committee of the Foreign Secretaries suggested that the ministerial meeting, which would also discuss the problem of human trafficking, be convened at an early date. Bangladesh has decided to host the meeting. It finalised several proposals on energy cooperation, poverty alleviation besides follow-up action of free trade agreement in the regional grouping.

However the `idea' floated by Pakistan for expansion of the Council charter to include peace and security issues overshadowed the long list of agenda deliberated by the SAARC Standing Committee.

At the end of the two-day deliberations, the SAARC Standing Committee agreed that Permanent Representatives of the seven member states at the U.N. in New York be directed to ``take action for obtaining observer status'' at the world body, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary and Chairman of the Committee, Riaz Khokhar, told a news conference here. He said Pakistan's Permanent Representative, as SAARC Chairman, has been mandated to coordinate efforts in this regard.

Mr. Khokhar emphasised that the Pakistani delegation did not float any formal proposal on the opening day of the meeting for inclusion of peace and security agenda on the SAARC charter. ``It was an idea which came up from the Pakistani side in the course of a discussion on a particular subject,'' he said in response to repeated questions.

However the confusion on the subject was confounded when Mr. Khokhar said the SAARC should draw ideas from other regional fora. He said that for instance in the Asian Regional Forum peace and security issues could be deliberated. Mr. Khokhar, however, did concede that the SAARC charter, as it stood, forbade any discussion on bilateral issues.

At a separate briefing, the Foreign Secretary, Shashank, said in response to questions on observations made by Mr. Khokhar that at the moment India and Pakistan were engaged in discussions at the bilateral level on all the subjects. As for the ARF model cited by Mr. Khokhar, both India and Pakistan were members of the ARF.

On the deliberations of the SAARC Standing Committee, Mr. Khokhar said it also recommended that a ministerial meeting on combating terrorism and trans-national crimes, including drug and human trafficking be convened at an early date. It welcomed the offer by Bangladesh to host the meeting.

He said Pakistan had also offered to host a SAARC Energy Ministers' Forum and a SAARC Energy Centre. The Committee also approved a host of proposals on cooperation in the fields of higher education, health, media, town planning and women's empowerment.

Mr. Shashank said the Foreign Secretaries would be recommending some ideas to the SAARC Ministers on the question of energy cooperation.

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