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Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

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International - India & World

SAARC not being held hostage: India

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, DEC. 7. The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Shiv Shankar Menon, today said that there is no merit in the argument that SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) is a hostage to India-Pakistan relations and maintained that the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) best illustrated the case.

Addressing a seminar organised by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations, Economic Affairs and Law on `Achievements, Failures and Future Prospects of SAARC' in the port city of Karachi, Mr. Menon argued that for instance, the SAFTA offered Pakistan a way to trade with India in a relatively normal way, outside the fetters of the present positive list system in force in Pakistan.

The envoy said that if for some psychological reason Pakistan finds it difficult to extend most-favoured nation (MFN) treatment like India gives Pakistan, the SAFTA provided a partial opening.

On the thesis that India-Pakistan relations have held SAARC hostage, Mr. Menon said that he failed to understand why it should be so unless a member-state chooses to make it so, and uses the principle of decisions by unanimity to get its way. "India certainly does not make progress in SAARC conditional on the levels of our bilateral relationships. If anything, we see these as complementary," he said.

The High Commissioner conceded that SAARC goal of accelerating the process of economic and social development in member-states through joint action in the agreed areas of cooperation have not been realised.

Mr. Menon said South Asia as a region has done a better job of catching up with the rest of the world in the years since SAARC was formed than before. India, for instance, has recorded 23 years of over 6 per cent economic growth and consistently pulled an additional one per cent of its poor above the poverty line each year. He said that while Sri Lanka has built further upon its human development indicators, which match many developed countries, Bangladesh has grown rapidly in the last 20 years. At the same time, he said better performance couldn't be ascribed to SAARC.

Talking of future, he said the major reason for hope in SAARC is the fact that the member countries are displaying an ability to learn from our past, as the Islamabad Summit showed. "At the Islamabad Summit, SAARC showed clear signs of rejuvenation, with the signing of the Social Charter, the Agreement on SAFTA and the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism."

`Myths cloud thinking'

Mr. Menon said there are some myths about SAARC that cloud thinking and one is that asymmetries of size, development or other factors between SAARC member-states hinder our economic and social cooperation and development. He maintained that in fact the opposite is true.

Mr. Menon said the other myth is that political differences between member-states affect SAARC's ability to fulfil its mandate.

The founders of the Association were wise not to link economic and social cooperation to a resolution of political disputes, he said. If anything, they saw successful cooperation as creating the conditions, which might enable a successful resolution of differences, he said.

South Asia has now the economic and technical capacity to realise the dream of a region free of poverty, illiteracy and malnourishment.

He said in India's view, our focus must surely be on poverty alleviation, education, sustaining the environment, and improving economic infrastructure.

Mr. Menon said it must also be on a move towards increased free trade, access to markets, enhanced investments within SAARC, and eventually to realise a common market or economic union which will buttress the strengths of individual countries to common good.

"I think we are also all agreed that SAARC needs to evolve away from being merely a focal point for meetings and discussions into a genuinely project and target-oriented organisation. It is our hope that the Dhaka Summit will give member-states a chance to help SAARC through such a transition," he said.

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