Colombo for early SAARC summit

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, DEC.8.Sri Lanka's efforts to kick-start the SAARC back to life gathered momentum with the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, reiterating her country's commitment to the grouping in a message on the 15th anniversary of its charter today.

``As the chair of SAARC, Sri Lanka is committed to moving the SAARC process forward. It is with this objective in view that we initiated action to hold an extraordinary meeting of the SAARC member countries at a senior officials' level in Colombo last month,'' she said.

Official sources said one of the priority items on the agenda of the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, when he visits New Delhi next week, would be to explore the ground for holding a meeting of the SAARC standing committee of Foreign Secretaries early next year.

Hinting that Sri Lanka would like the summit to be held quickly, Ms. Kumaratunga said she ``(looked) forward to the next SAARC summit in Kathmandu to work out new strategies to bring peace and prosperity to our peoples in the near future.''

Meanwhile, a South Asian ``people summit'' began here with calls for peace and disarmament and appeals to the Governments of the region to convene the indefinitely-postponed meeting of the SAARC heads of state. The meet isorganised by the South Asian Partnership International, a private body funded by the Canadian aid agency CIDA.

Speakers at the inaugural session identified poverty, illiteracy and unemployment as the ``common enemies'' of the region, but lamented that instead of recognising this, the Governments were spending billions of rupees on arms race.``India and Pakistan have held 1.5 billion people to ransom because of their lack of vision. The rest of the region has suffered because of their sustained mutual hostility,'' said Admiral. L. Ramdas, India's former Navy Chief.

The former Bangladesh Supreme Court judge, Mr. Kamal Hossein, said South Asia lagged the rest of the world in developing mechanisms and institutions for regional co-operation. It was a matter of concern for the people of the region that the SAARC summit had not been convened for two years, he said and asked the participants to form ``alliances'' to tackle the common problems.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Florida Legislature session convened
Next     : Afghan, U.S. envoys meet in Islamabad