The Hindu : National : India yet to clear new dates for SAARC summit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 13, 2005

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National

India yet to clear new dates for SAARC summit

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, JAN. 12. India has to take a view on whether the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, will find February 7 and 9 convenient to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Dhaka.

According to official sources, other than India, all six SAARC nations — the host Bangladesh, the current SAARC Chairman, Pakistan, Nepal and the tsunami-hit Sri Lanka and the Maldives — have already consented to the fresh dates in February.

It may be recalled that the 13th SAARC summit was to have been held in Dhaka from January 9 to 11, but had to be postponed after the destruction wreaked by tsunami waves in India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

A statement posted on the SAARC website said, "The Secretariat has been informed that ... Mr. Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan, as the current Chairperson of SAARC, has announced the unanimous decision of SAARC members to postpone the 13th SAARC summit ... "

"This decision has been taken in the light of the enormous destruction caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami ... the magnitude of devastation requires the Governments of the affected countries to devote undivided attention to relief and reconstruction efforts. The new dates for the summit would be announced by the Secretariat as soon as finalised by the member states."

The sources said the Government of India would take a view in the next few days on whether or not the dates suited New Delhi. One complicating factor for the Prime Minister is that while the first phase of elections in Bihar and Jharkhand will get over on February 3, the next phase of polls in these two States is on February 15.

The fresh dates of February 7 to 9 fall smack in the middle of the campaign for the second phase for Bihar and Jharkhand. But if there are elections in this period, the budget session of Parliament is set to begin on February 25.

All decisions in SAARC have to be unanimous — if a single member feels that the fresh dates are not convenient — then the meeting could be postponed further. But getting seven heads of government to agree on one set of dates is no easy task.

New Delhi is aware that Bangladesh is keen to go ahead with the SAARC summit. In fact, even after the tsunami hit three SAARC nations, a senior Foreign Ministry official in Dhaka told South Asian envoys that the SAARC summit should be held.

According to the sources, if the 13th summit is held after February, then this will begin eating into the time Bangladesh would hold the rotating, annual Chair of SAARC. Already, as per a decision taken at the 12th summit in Islamabad, the annual summit should be held in the first half of January.

In the past, relations between key SAARC nations have been so bad that the summit meeting could not be held. Last year's decision to hold every SAARC summit in January was taken because the leaders felt that this was the most convenient time for all countries.

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