It is true that the SAARC summit in Colombo passed off peacefully with little as to no interruptions to its proceedings, but that does not implement that the summit was a success. International organizations such as SAARC need not be anodyne cash guzzlers that produce little beyond soporific communiqués.
Issues related to terrorism, economic cooperation and trust deficits between member countries have repeatedly been addressed in the summits, with new declarations being drafted every now and then, but not much has been done towards implementation of these declarations.
During this year’s summit, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh had their first ever meeting, which was termed by Mr. Gilani as constructive and friendly. Mr. Gilani said that political and elected people build bridges amongst nations rather than walls. A very noble school of thought indeed, but is it really the approach of the current leaders? Does that constructive and friendly conversation include India’s accusation of Pakistan being involved in the recent terrorist bombings in India and Afghanistan? Does that include the reservations that the Indian Army and their Prime Minister have regarding the Line of Control (LoC) of Pakistan and India?
Unfortunately it is not only between India and Pakistan, India has a dispute with Bangladesh on border limits and the Ganges river; the Sri Lankan government has reservations against India for they believe that the Indian government is feeding the Tamil Tigers and even Nepal says its pressurized by India not to accept any aid or cooperation from China on several public welfare works. Then there is the Pak-Afghan issue, where the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai on the foot note of India has repeatedly accused Pakistan for his failure in imposing law and order in the country and incompetent administration.
The action on the sidelines of SAARC summits is often more interesting than what happens within the parameters of the regional forum. This year’s summit was no different, with explosive accusations being traded between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan – three of the eight member countries – there is little hope for progress on the central theme of ‘SAARC Trade’. The South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) that was signed in Islamabad in 2004 set a 2012 deadline for zero customs duty on the trade of a majority of products between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Tariffs for the whole eight-member bloc were meant to be eliminated for all practical purposes by 2016. Yet SAFTA has languished as India and Pakistan quibbled over non-tariff barriers and the agreement has yet to be ratified by either country. The summit does not seem to be the place where trade was going to receive a boost.
The main focus seemed to be on terrorism and security, where India alleged Pakistan for cross-LoC violations in Kashmir and involvement in recent attacks on Indian interests in Afghanistan. President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, went to the extent of accusing Pakistan of nurturing “terrorism and terrorist sanctuaries”. Keeping in view all of this it does not seem that the summit is going to achieve its purpose of regional cooperation.
Perhaps if India and Afghanistan are so sure that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI was involved in the recent terrorist attacks they should provide evidence to the Pakistani government so that they may take action against it, and then again the summit was not held so that nations could point fingers at one another and grow further apart, but to remove the distances and bring them closer.
If we take a look at other regional bodies like the European Union (EU) and the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) it is quite plain to see that the only thing SAARC has achieved so far is that now we have a regional body as well. European Union is the best example of regional cooperation for the well being of their people. It comprises of 26 nations with different cultures, history, languages and heritage, and not to forget who fought the two bloodiest wars in the history of mankind, World War I & II. But they have now put aside all their differences since for them their priority is the welfare of their people. They have integrated their region to such an extent that they now have a mono currency and free travelling amongst all EU countries.
On the other hand the SAARC countries have more than 1.5 billion laborious, sturdy populations, a good weather all year round, fertile land with great water resources, and is yet unable to prosper because we are not ready to put our past and our differences behind and start over new. In order to make this summit a success it is essential that the member countries cooperate with one another on all fronts, especially India and Pakistan as they both are the leading economies of the region and until and unless they are willing to work out their differences, true regional integration can never happen in the region.
It really is not that hard to do so since the people of India and Pakistan were once a single nation and co-existed peacefully for years. We are not only neighbours but share similar social, cultural, lingual and common values. If given a sincere attempt from both nations, they can once again coexist and enjoy the fruit of liberation.
But under the current circumstances it does not appear to be so. The allegations made by Indian Premier and Afghani President showed that they were only there to do paperwork and were not willing to give it a sincere shot. The member countries are bedevilled by mutual suspicions, unresolved past and current conflicts. These along with the accompanying trust deficits, show no early sign of resolution until there are moves in the direction of real change – change beyond an exchange of paper assertions. Unless this is done, SAARC is unlikely to move away from being an expensive talking shop.
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