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3-yr. moratorium on new observers recommended

COLOMBO: The SAARC Council of Foreign Ministers has recommended a three-year moratorium on admission of new observers.

A decision to this effect was taken by the Ministers at a meeting, which also finalised guidelines for the existing members on their engagement with the grouping.

Bangladesh Adviser for the Foreign Ministry Iftekhar Ahmed Chouwdhry said at a function organised by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) that the decision was taken to ensure a meaningful engagement with the existing observers.

“There is interest in SAARC from all parts of the world and we took a conscious decision not to have new members for a period of three years”, he said.

The SAARC was created in 1985 as a seven-member organisation with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as the founding members. In 2007, Afghanistan was inducted as the eighth.

The association in 2005 created a category of countries with observer status. China, the E.U., Iran, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mauritius and the U.S. are the observers. The representations from Australia and Myanmar for observer status were approved on Thursday.

Asked about the decision on the moratorium, Mr. Qureshi told journalists that observer states to SAARC were very important and the forum had tapped their potential for technical and financial assistance to SAARC-related projects.

“We have been looking at ways to make the engagement of the SAARC with observer states more meaningful,” he said.

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