Round The World
New Delhi, 4 May 2010
Singh-Gilani Meet
SAARC SUMMIT OVERSHADOWED
By Monish Tourangbam
Research Scholar, School of
International Studies (JNU)
After much media speculation, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani did
finally meet on the sidelines of the 16th Summit
of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Thimpu, Bhutan.
However, the kind of coverage accorded to the prospects of a resumption of
dialogue between the two South Asian rivals again overshadowed the proceedings
of the regional grouping, seen to be one of the less successful ones, compared
to its peers in East Asia and South East Asia.
Indeed, it is impossible to ignore
the importance that a healthy India-Pakistan relationship holds for the better
functioning of this group, a point that has been raised time and again by
leaders from other member-countries. This time as well, the Indian and the
Pakistani premiers were under some sort of pressure from their counterparts to
help break the deadlock in India-Pakistan relations, as meaningful talks
stalled since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
In fact, many of the leaders from
member countries felt that Pakistan
should not procrastinate due legal proceedings against those accused for the
terror attacks in Mumbai. After 25 years
of existence, the SAARC does not really have a concrete progress to flaunt, and
much of the blame has gone to the impasse and rivalry between New
Delhi and Islamabad.
The salience and the motive of the regional grouping is much beyond
India-Pakistan and only this realization could drive other vital issues forward
in the region.
Other member countries were of the
opinion that India and Pakistan should
compartmentalize their problems, so that the much-needed attention could be
given to issues of trade and regional connectivity. The region is home to
one-fourth of the humanity and member countries such as the Maldives are
destined to confront the ill-effects of climate change. Moreover, the prospects
for intra-regional trade and other forms of connectivity is clearly
underutilized and it is the only the ground materialization of policies and
statements that will help the region combat these clear and present issues.
The thrust of the summit this time
around was on climate change but sadly very little importance was given to the
post-summit declarations and statements in the wake of the frenzy created
around the Singh-Gilani meet. Many references were given to the importance of a
thaw in India-Pakistan relations by other leaders during the summit. Obliquely
referring to the centrality of the India-Pakistan relations on the region and
SAARC as such, the Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley said, "every
South Asian knows that a discordant family cannot be happy and that fractious
and quarrelsome neighbours do not make a prosperous community.”
So apart from the realization of the
Singh-Gilani meet, the other major outcome of the summit was the joint resolve
shown by the leaders to combat climate change. They dwelled on the importance
of presenting a joint platform and voice for the region at the Climate talks to
be held in Cancun, Mexico late this year. More
vulnerable member countries such as Bangladesh
and Maldives have been
reported to have put forward the importance of firmer commitments towards
mitigating the effects of climate change, including on the touch issue of
peaking of emissions, something that both India
and China
did not endorse at the Copenhagen Climate Change talks.
Pursuant to the SAARC Plan of Action
on Climate Change, the members decided to establish an Inter-governmental
Expert Group on Climate Change. Some other resolutions were agreed upon such
as: to commission a study, for presentation to the 17th SAARC
summit, on ‘Climate Risks in the Region; ways to comprehensively address the
related social, economic and environmental issues’, to plant one crore trees
over the next five years to build a “green and happy South
Asia” and to enhance trade cooperation.
The essence of any regional organization
is to work towards enhancing the concurrence of viewpoints and policies on
matters that impact the region as a whole. The motive is to improve
connectivity among the member-States so as to benefit from the experiences and
abilities of each. And SAARC is no different. The yardstick of the success and
efficacy of any regional group is its ability to structure a cohesive response
to global issues and project a commonality of views at any global summit.
This is the very reason behind all
the deliberation that occupied the SAARC leaders, trying their best to create a
roadmap where the different member States at different stages of economic
development and struggling with different levels of climate change impact can
travel together. In this discourse, a lot will be expected from India as it
occupies a pivotal position at the global stage on climate change talks. As
such, New Delhi
has to walk a tight rope, as it needs to balance the demands of its economic
progress as well as the recognition of impending dangers faced by other more
vulnerable SAARC States.
Another issue discussed upon during
the summit has become a sort of a permanent item on the menu of every global,
regional and bilateral meet: namely terrorism. It assumes significant
centre-stage for the region. While terrorism is clearly a menace to progress
and development in the region, two member-countries: Pakistan
and Afghanistan
are being seen as the epicenters of international terrorism.
The Taliban is clearly bleeding Afghanistan to
its very core forcing the world community to actually endorse the deal to rope
in what is called “Good Taliban”. Pakistan is being haunted by
rampant terror strikes in its own soil by the sections of the same elements
that help create in the first place (a clear case of “Frankenstein’s monster”).
The anti-India networks based in Pakistan have dealt a huge blow to
human lives and security in the Indian mainland, the most tragic being 26/11
that has deadlocked any meaningful dialogue between the two nations.
During the summit, the leaders took
the platform to condone terrorism in all its facets, with the Afghan President
strongly supporting the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism.
When it comes to terrorism, every leader in the world, every single grouping in
the globe mange to sound alike: rejecting terrorism in all its avatars. But to defeat this scourge on
humanity, what one needs is not rhetoric and flowery statements but a
no-nonsense agenda minus any ambiguous stand on terrorism or whatever face it
projects.
Increased realization of the
salience of trade connectivity, economic development, people-to-people contact
and a common disdain for any activity that hampers the growth of the 1.5
billion people in this region can go a long way in fighting self-centered
groups out to defeat the very essence of human civilization and growth. All
eyes would be on SAARC Home Ministers meeting in Islamabad later this June to strengthen
cooperation to combat terrorism and extremism.
Despite the fact that it snatched
the media spotlight from the summit, the Singh-Gilani meet could be seen to
have set a good precedent. The summit served as a platform for the two leaders
to break ice and if this leads to increased diplomatic channeling and
reciprocal measures to clear misunderstandings and suspicions, the SAARC summit
should deserve the accolades.--INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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