CHANDIGARH: Unveiling his vision for the coming meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday suggested that countries in the region should learn to work together to deal with the challenges of poverty, disease, natural disasters and terrorism.

"I have often said that we have, in South Asia, not just shared boundaries and shared civilisation roots, but also a shared destiny... . As the two recent natural disasters — the tsunami of last year and the recent earthquake — have proved, even nature has ordained it so," Dr. Singh said, while delivering the P.N. Haksar memorial lecture at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development here.

He said given these bonds, countries in the region need to invest more time and energy in working together. "No country can any longer pretend that what happens across the border is not going to hurt it internally."

Inter-dependence

Referring to the coming SAARC meeting to be held at Dhaka later this week, Dr. Singh said he hoped that all would approach it with the perspective of inter-dependence that strengthens "our collective security and secures our collective prosperity. I am aware that we in India will be expected to take the lead in many areas. This is the privilege and responsibility... I do believe that we must work with our neighbours to ensure that we all nations benefit from the growth process in the region. Our neighbours must see us as a land of opportunity."

The Prime Minister expressed happiness that the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) which is due to become operational next year, was on the anvil. Describing it as the first step in the evolution of SAARC as a regional trade bloc and an economic union, he suggested that to exploit the full potential of SAFTA, the process has to be expedited.

This, he said, could be done by complementing it by a SAARC Investment Area and move on to deepen it by forming a SAARC Customs Union and then gradually to an economic union.

SAARC, he said, could also evolve as a forum for annual meetings of economic or industry ministries to facilitate discussion on exploitation of complementarities in their economies for mutual advantage. Similarly, he said, SAARC should also take steps to improve physical connectivity by roads, railways, inland waterways and shipping and airlinks to take advantage of geographical proximity. He said a common SAARC transport policy to facilitate movement of goods could also be evolved.

Considering the immense potential of energy cooperation, the Prime Minister said a South Asian energy dialogue involving experts, academics, environmentalists, bureaucrats and non-governmental organisations could examine it.

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