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SAARC Summit – Little on substance |
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Harjit Singh
Despite high sounding claims and the ambitious goals set by the eight SAARC members at the just ended 14th summit in New Delhi, the slow moving regional bandwagon is likely to hurtle down the road with a lot of roadblocks. The New Delhi summit was no departure from the earlier ones where the declarations were high on rhetoric and low on substance. The SAARC record of achievements is dismal. At every summit, the member-countries make pledges to make SAARC work. They reaffirm their commitment to high-sounding programmes such as end to terrorism, food security and alleviation of poverty. But, they are forgotten even before the SAARC leaders return to their countries.
At the New Delhi summit, the only announcement of some import came from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was a unilateral one – to grant zero duty access for least developed countries of the forum [Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal]. The gesture reflects India’s confidence as an emerging economic power in Asia as also its desire to promote an atmosphere so that the people of the region develop a stake in shared growth.
No doubt Pakistan should be thanked for not raising the Kashmir issue at the summit, unlike in the past. But, its Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz did not let the opportunity go and used his interaction with newsmen in New Delhi to emphasize that there can be no SAFTA or free trade with India unless there is progress on the Kashmir front. This is another way of sabotaging SAFTA on which depends the success of the SAARC goal of free trade by the year 2012. Shaukat Aziz’s linkage of free trade with the Kashmir dispute deserves to be condemned and without naming it, leaders of the smaller countries such as Prime Minister Koirala of Nepal and Maldives President Gayoom in their SAARC speeches, made out a strong case for making SAFTA fully operational as economic cooperation and free trade lay at the heart of successful regionalism.
The need for operationalisation of SAFTA hardly needs to be emphasized. A World Bank report has said that South Asia is the least integrated region in the world and its intra-regional trade is less than two per cent of gross domestic product as compared to over 20 per cent for ASEAN countries and 55 per cent within the EU. It is estimated that annual trade between India and Pakistan could go upto $9 billion if the barriers are removed.
Pakistan is, however, found to be standing in the way of every effort towards greater integration of South Asian economies – whether it is trade or connectivity. It is denying transit facilities to India by road for transportation of goods to Afghanistan and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who took the podium for the first time after Afghanistan’s entry into the grouping, urged it not to forget the interests of the landlocked countries in the region such as his country. Dr. Manmohan Singh’s call for greater connectivity and his suggestion to connect all the SAARC capitals through direct flights as well as his announcement of liberalization of visas for students, teachers, journalists and patients, could not have been more timely.
It remains to be seen to what extent Prime Minister Singh’s suggestion of making progress on cooperation on four major issues which affect South Asian peoples’ daily lives [water, energy, food and environment] is achieved. The question is, why can there be no greater connectivity. Why cannot Indian relief goods use Pakistani roads to reach Kabul. Why cannot Pakistan buy tea from India at cheaper rates instead of Africa. Why it is buying Indian goods from Dubai rather than from across the border. These can happen only when there is political will and what Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, has repeatedly been saying end to “trust deficit”. This deficit is more from the Pakistani side than from this side. Its linkage of regional cooperation with exterior issues such as Kashmir in spite of the charter of SAARC prohibiting bringing in bilateral contentious issues to mar its proceedings, its denial of most favoured nation status to India, its refusal to reciprocate the concessions given to it under SAFTA are all having an impact on the overall progress of SAARC. It is nearly 20 years since SAARC was launched.
For the next one year, the chairmanship of SAARC will remain in the hands of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He would like to see that at least the initiatives that he has taken make some headway. The measure of his leadership of the forum will be judged by the success he achieves in this direction. He can take comfort from the fact that in spite of the Kashmir dispute remaining a key issue between the two countries, at least atmospherics have improved. There is less trust deficit. Progress has been made in talks on smaller issues like Sir Creek and Siachen. Prime Minister Singh has an invitation in his hands to visit Pakistan. Terrorism has come down in Jammu and Kashmir. The ceasefire on LoC is holding. There is a regular exchange of visits following the decision to embark on the next round of the composite dialogue. One hopes the improvement in atmospherics will have its impact on Pakistan’s views on regional cooperation because as of now it believes that even a small trade concession would be to the advantage of India.
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