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Indo-Pak dialogue augurs well for SAARC: Aziz
by Ashok Dixit

     Dhaka: Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Saturday that the political atmosphere between Islamabad and New Delhi had shown a marked improvement since the 12th SAARC Summit in his country, and hoped that the success of the process would augur well for the regional forum. Addressing the 13th SAARC Summit in the Bangladesh capital, Aziz said that regional cooperation and the profile of SAARC had enhanced considerably over the last two years, and all members were now witness to a new hope emerging in the subcontinent. "The Dhaka Summit is taking place under propitious circumstances, as we are witnessing a new hope across our ancient subcontinent. Since the Islamabad Summit, I am happy to state that the political atmosphere between Pakistan and India has improved and both countries are engaged in a peace process to resolve all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. Success of the process augurs well for the region and SAARC," Aziz said.

    Recalling the achievements of the 12th SAARC Summit, the Pakistan Premier said that it had set "new markers for regional cooperation" such as the SAFTA, the Social Charter, the Poverty Alleviation, and the signing of the Additional Protocol on the Convention on Suppression of Terrorism. That SAARC had also received Observer Status at the United Nations was also an important development, Aziz added. He also expressed Pakistan's deep gratitude to the world community, and specifically the SAARC community, for the assistance provided to his country in the immediate afetermath of the devastating October 8 earthquake. Describing the earthquake as a colossal tragedy, Aziz said that the people of Pakistan had responded to it with "courage and determination." Recalling the devastating impact of the Asian Tsunami of December 2004 and the October 8 earthquake, the Pakistan Prime Minister said that it clearly highlighted " the need to establish an early warning and disaster response system in the region", and added that a SAARC Environment Conference held in Male recently had called for better regional cooperation, better preparedness and effective management of natural disasters. This, he said, needed to be taken up at the national level with the utmost urgency. Paying tribute to the vision of former Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman, who had initiated the idea of SAARC in 1985, he said that it was now time to "transform his vision into a reality." Commenting on the inclusion of Afghanistan as the eigth member of SAARC, Aziz said that it would undoubtedly enrich the forum and add to its strength. China's interest in acquiring observer status was also a welcome development. Describing regional cooperation as a powerful vehicle of peace, development and progress, Aziz said that in a transformed world, South Asia is still to enter the mainstream of this "worldwide phenomenon" "We (South Asia) remain mired in poverty and preoccupied with our differences and conflicts. We have not been able to leverage the full potential of SAARC. We cannot escape the conclusion that South Asia lags behind its larger Asian neighbourhood in terms of economic and social advancement," Aziz said. He further went on to say that there were two key impediments to SAARC's success-the political disputes and the tensions in the region and the focus being on conflict management rather than conflict resolution.

     Secondly, he said that it was lamentable that while other Asian countries, especially those of the ASEAN were actively closer and robust in their cooperation and had positioned themselves to benefit from the globalization process, SAARC continued to be "inward looking and shy of reaching out to other regional organizations and the world" "We must adopt an inclusive approach and open to interaction, especially with our larger Asian neighbourhood. We need to create linkages and interdependencies, ensuring a win-win for all," Aziz said, adding that a political will must be demonstrated to sustain the momentum generated at Islamabad. Aziz said that Pakistan has submitted a blueprint on the way forward for SAARC that would make it goal-oriented, practical and pragmatic. The focus, he added, should be on implementing decisions and translating them into tangible terms of value to the regional enterprise. In his view, the broad priorities for SAARC were expansion and intensification of economic and commercial cooperation, promoting cooperation in the field of energy, ensuring environmental protection and sustainable development with a focus on safeguarding water and natural resources, improved cooperation in joint projects to alleviate poverty and promote health, education and agriculture, improvement of infrastructure, cooperation and coordination in fiscal and monetary policies and finally strengthening the hands of the SAARC Secretariat. Expressing the hope that SAFTA would become a reality by January 2006, Aziz said that Pakistan would always be at the forefront of energy cooperation in South Asia, including the concept of an Energy Ring, as mandated by the 12th SAARC Summit. He also called for future SAARC summits to be more business-like in their approach so that concentration was only on issues of a substantive nature.

   The greatest global challenge, he said, was to eradicate poverty, and Pakistan has and would continue to make concerted efforts to arrest this scourge by accelerating economic growth, developing human resource job creation, agriculture and industry and through micro-finance credit. Gender equality too was an issue that needed to be addressed more effectively, and Pakistan was committed to redoubling its efforts for women empowerment and their inclusion in the socio economic mainstream. He concluded by saying that SAARC could ill-afford to function in isolation, and that there was need to establish closer interactions with extra-regional states and other regional organizations like the European Union, ASEAN, OECD, ECO, Gulf Coordination Council and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. South Asia, he said, had lots to offer, and therefore, there was a need to "create synergies and build mutually beneficial economic complementarities." South Asia needed to be converted into an engine of economic growth, and Pakistan would do its bit in this regard, Aziz said.