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Put aside rivalries, PM tells SAARC
LUCKNOW, JAN. 3. The following is the text of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's statement issued at a press conference before his departure for the SAARC summit at Kathmandu:
``The summit meeting will bring together the seven South Asian countries in their cooperative endeavour to strengthen regional, economic, social and cultural linkages. As the technological revolution advances and globalisation rapidly shrinks the world, regional cooperation acquires a special importance in promoting economic growth and equitable development. The success of the other regional organisations around the world should also inspire SAARC to move along the path of closer integration.
The main message that I will be carrying to the SAARC is that the people of our region are looking to their leaders to generate an environment of mutually beneficial cooperation which will promote their socio-economic aspirations. We should put aside our political confrontations and mutual rivalries, so that our resources can be concentrated on the pressing agenda of eradication of poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy.
I hope the SAARC summit in Kathmandu will also display new resolve to tackle the scourge of terrorism which has pervaded the region. Our bitter experience of the past decades, graphically revisited on December 13, is also shared by some other countries in our region.
A shared South Asian determination to act in concert against terrorism can remarkably alter the political, economic and social landscape of the region.
While in Kathmandu, I will take the opportunity to meet His Majesty the king of Nepal and the Prime Minister of Nepal. I will express my Government's solidarity with His Majesty's Government of Nepal in the difficult measures which it had to take against forces which threatened the unity and stability of the country.
I would also welcome the opportunity of meeting the Presidents of Maldives and Sri Lanka and the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and Bhutan, to pick up the threads of the cordial bilateral relationship which we enjoy with each of these countries.''
- PTI
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