DHAKA: India said on Monday that Pakistan's decision to retain its bilateral list for trade with New Delhi under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement had a bearing on the success of the SAARC process.

Apart from Pakistan's volte-face on SAFTA, India also called upon South Asian nations to cooperate in the battle against terrorism in the wake of the recent blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar.

Addressing presspersons after a meeting of the SAARC Standing Committee, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said Pakistan's decision not to go according to SAFTA norms concerned all South Asian nations.

India-Pakistan differences on SAFTA dominated the first day of the Foreign Secretaries meeting, with New Delhi taking the line that Pakistan's decision to abandon SAFTA and take the bilateral trading route had to be addressed urgently.

Affects contracting parties

In a tough message to Pakistan after Islamabad stated that the issue was a bilateral one, Mr. Saran stated: "This is not merely a technical or bilateral issue. It is a negation of SAFTA and jeopardises the implementation of the agreement. It affects all contracting parties."

He pointed out that a lot of time and efforts had been invested in good faith while negotiating SAFTA. All that has now become in fructuous, because Pakistan has no intention to honour an understanding agreed to by all member-countries.

Mr. Saran stressed: "Why did SAARC member countries spend four years negotiating this Agreement and its annexes including the sensitive [negative] list if earlier country specific import policy takes precedence over SAFTA commitments?

Pakistan's actions, he said, contradicted the public statements by its leadership that once SAFTA was operationalised an MFN plus trading regime would come into effect.

The matter needs to be resolved with utmost urgency; otherwise SAFTA may well remain an Agreement only in words, with no way to implement it. This concerns all member states not just India.

SAFTA should be implemented in the spirit in which it was negotiated with all parties living up to the commitment they have solemnly undertaken. This has a bearing on the success of the SAARC process itself, affecting all other aspects of cooperation among member countries, Mr. Saran argued.

Asked if India was threatening to abandon SAARC, the Foreign Secretary said all delegations had committed themselves to the implementation of SAARC at Monday's meeting.

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