The Hindu : Upgrade SAARC, says Sinha

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 11, 2003

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Upgrade SAARC, says Sinha

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI Jan. 10. The External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, today suggested that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) be upgraded into a South Asian Union (SAU).

``If Africa can think in terms of a Union, if the Economic Community in Europe could become a European Union, if ASEAN could make progress, if the countries in Latin America could make progress, there is no reason why we in South Asia cannot become a Union of South Asian States,'' he said.

At a seminar on South Asia, Mr. Sinha presented a fresh view of an embattled region, one where neighbours usually confine themselves to taking pot shots at each other. There was not a single negative reference to Pakistan or the issue of cross-border terrorism.

Mr. Sinha, who said India was ready to agree to a free trade arrangement in SAARC tomorrow, went to the extent of embracing the Gujral doctrine of 1996; a policy which brought India considerable goodwill. Saying that he was putting the idea of a South Asian Union on the table, he said India was interested in negotiating a new agreement to create the SAU, which would not merely be an economic entity.

``It will acquire a political dimension in the same manner in which the European Union has come to acquire a political and strategic dimension. This is the direction in which I suggest we move,'' he said.

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