The Hindu : International : Dhaka to host SAARC summit in November

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 12, 2005

International

International

Dhaka to host SAARC summit in November

B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD: The 13th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation will be held on November 12-13 in Dhaka, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced here on Saturday in his capacity as SAARC Chairman.

Originally scheduled for January 9-11, the summit was postponed after the tsunami strike on December 26. It was rescheduled for February 6-7 but was cancelled at the last moment after India declined to participate citing security concerns in the region and the political situation in Nepal.

"We have been engaged in attempts to reschedule the summit at the earliest. All the member-states have agreed to attend the SAARC summit," Mr. Aziz told a news conference. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar and Foreign Secretary Riaz Ahmed Khan were present.

The Dhaka summit will build on in the initiatives launched during the highly successful 12th SAARC summit in Islamabad in January 2004, Mr. Aziz said. It will review progress on South Asian Free Trade Area, the SAARC Social Charter and SAARC development goals for poverty alleviation, education, health and environment. The summit attached high priority to the effective functioning of SAARC to promote greater cooperation in diverse fields.

Further impetus

Mr. Aziz said the regional leaders would also discuss ways and means of giving further impetus to the SAARC process and making the organisation more effective as its entered the third decade. "We believe that regional cooperation is an important vehicle for faster economic growth and development." He said he was looking forward to meeting the leaders of South Asian countries for "a constructive and a fruitful" summit in Dhaka, as he believed in its effective functioning. South Asia holds lots of potential if bilateral regional cooperation is also promoted.

Asked whether he would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines, Mr. Aziz said: "The regional meetings tend to have bilateral meetings on the sidelines...we will see." He would hold meetings with other SAARC leaders as well.

About the impact of Pakistan-India ties on SAARC, he said: "As relations get better, regional cooperation will also get better."

Meetings of the Programming and Standing Committees and the Council of Ministers from November 9-11 will precede the summit.

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