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SAARC FMs agree on trade, terrorism pacts
ISLAMABAD, JAN 03 - The ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) today reached a consensus on South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA).
The meeting also fine-tuned draft pacts on terrorism and poverty alleviation to be signed at the three-day summit starting from January 4.
Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, Nepal’s representative at the meeting, termed the SAFTA agreement as a ‘landmark’ in the region’s economic partnership and development.
"The 12th SAARC summit will turn out to be a milestone because of this agreement," Thapa told The Kathmandu Post.
He also hoped that the summit would settle other political and social conflicts in the region along with the agreement on SAFTA.
The highlight of the ministerial meeting was the warm embracing of Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers, Yashwant Sinha and Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, respectively. The ministers’ visible affinity at the start of the Council of Ministers meeting has raised hopes for cordiality.
Kasuri was buoyant on the prospects for the signing of a regional free trade pact that is hoped to transform the home of half the world’s poor into a powerful trade bloc. "I have just come back from the meeting where there was a great degree of warmth and candour and friendship," Kasuri said of the SAARC ministers meeting.
"If we proceed in the same manner in the second session (Saturday), perhaps our heads of state will be, or the summit will be, ready to sign the SAFTA agreement," he added.
The Council of Ministers of SAARC - which groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - will conclude their deliberations on Saturday.
Meanwhile, AFP has added that the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) topped the agenda with a regional terror pact and an agreement on fighting poverty. The foreign ministers also discussed adding a clause on freezing terrorist financing to an existing joint statement on terrorism.
A Pakistani official involved in the negotiations said it was directed at fighting international terrorism and did not relate to the insurgency in disputed Kashmir, which Pakistan considers a struggle for self-determination and India considers terrorism.
"The drafting and approval of the anti-terrorism protocol at the delegates levels marks a step towards developing a coherent regional response for dealing with the threat of transnational terrorism," the official said. "The two-day conference is expected to iron out lingering differences over plans to create a free trade area in South Asia, as less developed members still have concerns," a foreign ministry official said.
The SAARC standing committee of high-level foreign ministry officials of the seven member states approved a draft of the new text at the preparatory meetings earlier this week.
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