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We have just concluded a very successful, indeed a landmark, 14th SAARC Summit. Let me briefly go over some of the main points.
For the first time in its history, SAARC expanded its membership to welcome Afghanistan as its eighth member. Again, for the first time, five Observers from outside the region attended the Summit, which also decided to give a similar status to Iran. The expansion of SAARC and the developing external linkages are indicative of the high level of maturity that SAARC has reached as an organization.
The Summit adopted a comprehensive and forward-looking New Delhi Declaration, which sets out the core principles underlining our collective vision of an inter-connected South Asia where there is a free flow of goods, services, people and ideas. At the Retreat this morning, the Leaders agreed to make tangible progress in the next six months on four issues that affect the daily lives of our people. These include water (including flood control), energy, food and the environment. They decided to work with international agencies to develop and implement viable cross-border regional projects in these four sectors, which address our peoples’ basic needs. The Leaders also decided to designate 2008 as the “SAARC Year of Good Governance”.
During the last few days, there have been intensive discussions on how to move SAARC forward at a time when South Asia is in the midst of an unprecedented political and economic transformation. There was unanimous support for moving SAARC from the declaratory to the implementation phase. In this context, we committed ourselves to early operationalisation of the SAARC Development Fund. This will allow us to implement concrete projects, particularly for alleviation of poverty in the region. India is keen to utilize its offer of $ 100 million for this purpose.
This has been a highly productive Summit in terms of two very important intergovernmental agreements that were signed to establish the SAARC Food Bank and the South Asian University. The Food Bank will be developed as an exemplary model of regional cooperation to collectively meet our region’s food shortages in times of emergencies and natural calamities.
The South Asian University, which will be developed as a center of excellence in higher education for the entire region, is yet another milestone in the history of SAARC. This will be a multi-campus University. We will set up a Steering Committee to draw up the Charter, bye-laws, course curriculum, governance structure, and administrative and financial issues for the University.
Connectivity was the overarching theme of the Summit. This was aptly symbolized by the flagging off of the SAARC Car Rally just before the inaugural by the Leaders. We decided to extend the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study to Afghanistan that will speed up the move to greater connectivity in our region and in turn connect our region to Central Asia and beyond. The Intergovernmental Group on Transport has been directed to identify and develop sub-regional and regional projects based on the prioritized recommendations of the SRMTS.
There was full agreement that SAFTA was one of the most successful outcomes of SAARC’s collective efforts. We all agreed that it must be expanded to cover trade in services. We also underlined the importance of trade facilitation measures. As the largest country in the region, India is ready to accept asymmetrical responsibilities, including opening her markets to her South Asian neighbours without insisting on reciprocity. PM has already announced that before the end of the current year, India will allow the Least Developed Countries among its South Asian neighbours duty free access to its markets. It will also further reduce the sensitive list in respect of these countries. India also hopes that difficulties related to the full operationalisation of SAFTA will be resolved and that all member States will be in full compliance of SAFTA provisions in letter and spirit.
The decisions that we have taken at this Summit will not only boost intra-regional trade and investments but also promote cultural exchanges and travel within our region. In this regard, Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh proposed connecting all the SAARC capitals with direct flights. He also announced unilateral liberalization of visas particularly for students, teachers, professors, journalists and patients from the region. The Summit also decided to cover 50 journalists from each SAARC country under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme.
A calendar of activities has also been drawn up for this year to prioritize and rationalize our programmes. As the present Chair of SAARC, India will focus on implementing decisions taken and projects initiated. Within this year, we will implement a regional telemedicine network connecting two hospitals in each of the SAARC countries with super-speciality hospitals in India. The Museum of Textiles and Handicrafts will begin its activities with an exhibition-cum-sale of artifacts, crafts and textiles from the region. Each member State will also earmark one rural community as SAARC Village to showcase innovative models of development and poverty alleviation and home grown best practices for transforming the lives of the people in South Asia.
India will also host Ministerial meetings of Finance, Commerce, Home and Transport to prioritize our work in these areas.
Deliberations at the Summit and other meetings also reflected the strong condemnation of terrorism. The Leaders re-affirmed their commitment to combat this scourge and agreed to consider India’s proposal to work towards finalizing an Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
In terms of atmosphere, this was the smoothest, least contentious Summit ever. Clearly, this is on account of the fact that there is recognition that SAARC is an idea whose time has come. The constructive deliberations at various meetings of the Heads of State or Government, of the Council of Ministers and of Senior Officials and the high level presence of Observers, including the expression of interest of others, are all testimony to the fact that this is recognized not just within the region, but also outside of it.
The presence of Leaders at the Summit provided an excellent opportunity to hold bilateral discussions for energizing our substantive neighbourly ties with each of the Member States of SAARC.
Let me conclude by stating that India is firmly committed to regional cooperation for mutual benefit. I would like to reaffirm our wholehearted support and cooperation to our SAARC partners so that we succeed in our efforts to translate ideals into meaningful cooperation on the ground. As India assumes the Chair of SAARC, we are determined to utilize the forthcoming year to implement and build on this successful Summit.
Thank you.
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