by Farid Ahmed

With economic cooperation and terrorism topping the agenda, the leaders of the seven South Asian nations meet today to discuss the wellbeing of 1.5 billion people, a large chunk of whom are mired in poverty, and increasingly in the clutches of terrorism.
   Natural disasters are another misfortune that South Asian people recurrently face and the leaders of the regional forum –– South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC –– are also expected to take bold steps in this regard, in the wake of the catastrophes caused by the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, recent earthquakes and the frequent floods that often devastate the forum’s member states.
   In view of the colossal and tragic loss of life and property because of the recent natural calamities the summit is expected to underscore the need for creating a regional mechanism regarding disaster preparedness, management, emergency relief and rehabilitation.
   In this 13th summit, in a major development, the members will also discuss the expansion of the bloc, welcoming Afghanistan as a new member state. Islamabad and New Delhi seem to be in favour of Afghanistan’s inclusion in SAARC but the leaders will have to come to a unanimous agreement for the extension.
   At a curtain raising press conference earlier, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan said the cooperation in the fields of economy, disaster management and countering terrorism would dominate the 13th summit.
   The council of ministers comprising the foreign ministers of the group is the real policy forum that met on Friday to take final decisions on major issues and recommended their proposals for approval by the heads of state and government attending the summit.
   Moreover, issues relating to enhancing people-to-people contact, liberalising the visa regime, greater exchange among professionals and civil society have found clearance from the committees for discussion by the SAARC leaders.
   As terrorism is a cause for concern for all South Asian nations, the issue is expected to dominate the summit as Bangladesh and India –– both recently hit by series of bomb attacks –– seem set on on raising the issue.
   The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who meets his Bangladeshi counterpart Khaleda Zia on November 12 on the sidelines of the summit, is likely to seek dismantling of ‘training camps of anti-Indian insurgent groups operating from the Bangladeshi soil’ though Bangladesh has repeatedly denied their existence.
   Morshed Khan said, ‘Combating terrorism is a task that South Asia needs to pursue relentlessly. This issue has been in the international and regional spotlight for very compelling reasons.’
   Recognising the need to strengthen cooperation in fighting the scourge of terrorism, the summit is expected to stress the need for ratification of the Additional Protocol to the SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, and call for an early conclusion of a comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
   For economic cooperation, three new trade facilitation agreements are expected to be signed at the Dhaka summit.
   The accords likely to be firmed up are on establishment of a SAARC Arbitration Council, Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Matters and a Limited Multilateral Treaty on Avoidance of Double Taxation.
   India will be tabling a number of new proposals to improve cooperation in sectors like education, textiles and handicrafts, civil aviation, health care and sports, according to the Indian press.
   Since poverty alleviation has been identified as the overarching goal of SAARC, the summit is expected to declare the decade from 2006 to 2015 as the SAARC Decade of Poverty Alleviation.
   In this regard, the summit will likely endorse the SAARC Development Goals (SDGs) towards implementation of the SAARC Social Charter by the member states.
   The committees proposed for efforts in creating a SAARC Development Fund, with a possible meeting of finance ministers of the member states early next year in this regard.
   The committees opted for an initial capital of $300 million, to be contributed by the seven member countries, and the programming committee which initiated the pre-summit talk hoped that it is likely to be formed at this 13th summit.
   At present the development fund exists with only 5 million US dollar in the coffer but in the absence of any precise spending guidelines, the fund virtually remained untouched.
   The previous SAARC summit in Islamabad in 2004 agreed to launch a South Asian free trade area from January 2006.
   But less than two months before the agreement comes into force, members continue to squabble over a slew of issues although the officials at the pre-summit meetings on Thursday hoped for resolving the disputes for its timely kick-off.
   Formed about 20 years ago, SAARC has never really been able to take off for a variety of reasons.
   In the last twenty years, sectors such as agriculture, communication, health, population etc, were explored and studied for cooperation collectively by the member nations and the forum has a permanent secretariat stationed in Kathmandu along with some other small functionaries under its cover. But the people of the region are yet to reap the benefit of the forum.
   According to the SAARC Charter, the objective of the organisation is to promote peace, stability, amity and progress in the region. The Charter requires all the countries of the region to follow the principle of transition from SAPTA to SAFTA eventually leading to an economic union like European Union which took many years to come to the present arrangement.
   However, the journey towards it cannot be completed without peace, security and an environment of understanding in this region. Thus cooperative politics and cooperative economics are simultaneously necessary. For this, an appropriate social environment is also imperative.
   South Asia has emerged as a regional entity in the international political system with the creation of SAARC but it has failed to strengthen regional cohesiveness.
   There is still a lot of antagonism with large sets of outstanding issues, low levels of intra-regional trade, inadequate information and infrastructure facilities; independent and largely uncoordinated economic policies pursued by the member countries that visibly prefers parochial nationalist approach towards issues of common concerns. This regional club will remain just a club if the leaders, who have the mandate to deal with the wellbeing of this region, stay on in the regional politics of endemic conflicts and mistrust that they earned from a historical legacy.