Pakistan seems to be sticking to it’s policy of looking at political implications wrt SAARC while Vajpayee is now pushing the need to focus on economic co-operation. Wouldn’t it be better for both countries to treat each issue as seperate agendas and make progress where they can rather than letting the situation stagnate?
Pakistan wants Saarc to tackle political issues: Vajpayee stresses economic cooperation
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NEW DELHI, Nov 11: Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed on Tuesday urged Saarc countries to let the forum to take up debilitating political disputes dogging member states, but he also said that ties with India were on the mend.
Mr Ahmed, who addressed the Saarc information ministers third conference, had hogged the attention at the inaugural session on Tuesday morning when used a photo opportunity with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other Saarc ministers, to deftly move close to the Indian leader.
They shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries, but that was all. Mr Ahmed later told reporters he had conveyed the good wishes of his leaders to Mr Vajpayee, but Mr Vajpayee, who soon afterwards boarded a flight to Moscow, revealed that there was no discussion at all. Their encounter amid exploding flashbulbs lasted precisely 25 seconds.
Mr Vajpayee had stayed back to address the opening day of the two-day meeting, a gesture that Indian officials said was motivated by his commitment to the South Asian club. Analysts said it could be a good omen for the next summit in Islamabad.
While Mr Ahmed obliquely broached the issue of Pakistan’s main dispute with India during the plenary session, he significantly refrained from mentioning Kashmir by name in his address.
Mr Vajpayee, speaking earlier at the inaugural, delivered an act-or-perish speech, reminding Saarc members that they could miss the bus of economic opportunities beckoning them. Mr Vajpayee said if Saarc countries did not set their house in order, other regional groupings would take their place.
To encourage closer cooperation, he gave the examples of the India-Asean summit meeting in Bali, and the sub-regional initiatives for BIMSTEC involving Bangladesh, India, Mynamar, Sri Lanka and Thailand. "Later this month, we will host an India-European Union summit in Delhi, where similarly many new proposals for economic cooperation are on the anvil.
“In Moscow this week, I will also be discussing the multi-modal North-South transport corridor linking India, Iran and Central Asia with Russia,” Mr Vajpayee said. “I am mentioning all this, because such experiences in regional and sub-regional cooperation hold a lesson for Saarc.”
Post Cold War alignments and the technology revolution, have set in motion trends which Saarc can ignore only at its peril. “Asean is, of course, an old example of the triumph of economic organization over political differences,” Mr Vajpayee said.
Cold War Europe has forgotten its former political divisions and accepted differential economic development, while expanding the European Union. Innovative regional and sub-regional arrangements are being launched in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean region - including countries, which have a history of bitter hostility towards each other.
“This is a dominant trend in today’s globalizing world. It is time that we recognize what it means for all of us in South Asia,” Mr Vajpayee said, and warned: “If Saarc cannot organize itself, it will simply miss the boat. Other alignments will develop, to seize the economic opportunities offered by closer integration. We cannot forever be challenging logic and mocking economic.”
Disputing the argument that India’s unequal physical size and economic strength inhibits equal cooperation, he said: "These very factors can be turned to mutual economic advantage by creating inter-linkages, which can enhance confidence and trust. The collective size of our markets creates economies of scale with obvious impact on costs of production and competitiveness.
“We invite all our Saarc neighbours to participate in India’s economy, rather than be apprehensive about it. We have repeatedly expressed our willingness to enter into preferential trading arrangements and free trade agreements within the Saarc framework,” Mr Vajpayee said.
These observations have relevance to information ministers, since the media today plays a crucial role in moulding opinions and shaping public attitudes, Mr Vajpayee said.
Saarc countries could carry regular Saarc news programmes on national TV and radio channels, Mr Vajpayee said. "We should properly publicize and project Saarc activities within and outside the region. Information on developmental programmes and cultural events in individual Saarc countries should be aired in all the other countries of the region.
“This free flow of information, news, views and perspectives can do more for regional cooperation than any political exhortation. Since we are committed to Saarc, let us try this method,” he said. Mr Ahmed, in his speech later, did not waste any time in putting the focus promptly on India-Pakistan ties.
“It is my great privilege to represent Pakistan (in the meeting) at a time when the prospects for peace and cooperation in the region are encouraging,” Mr Ahmed said. “The confidence building measures implemented by the two countries as part of the normalization process initiated by the two prime ministers has contributed considerably towards improving the regional atmosphere.”
Mr Ahmed expressed the confidence that “the situation will further improve before the 12th Saarc summit.” He said, on its part, “Pakistan would continue to strive for peaceful resolution of all outstanding disputes and issues through dialogue and constructive engagement.”
In remarks that appeared to only partly accept the premise of Mr Vajpayee’s address that Saarc was lagging way behind EU and Asean, Mr Ahmed said the summit in Islamabad would “make further progress in removing the bottlenecks” to facilitate improvement.
But, he said, all this needed the right political environment. "This would only be possible if determined efforts are made to resolve disputes and issues and not allow them to simmer. "It is for this reason that Pakistan has been suggesting a broadening of the scope of Saarc’s areas of concern, to permit consideration of political problems.
“Close cooperation and development can only develop in a regional grouping when there is a complete political harmony among its members. EU is developing a common defence policy and foreign policy. Asean too has a political forum. However, we in Saarc are lagging behind.”