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Leaders of the seven South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations pose with Nepalese King Gyanendra (C) prior to a banquet at the Royal Palace in Kathmandu, 04 January 2002. The inaugural session of the 11th SAARC Summit was postponed by a day, because of the late arrival of Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf. AFP

Excerpts of an address by Lakshman Kadirgamar, P.C., M.P. then Minister of Foreign Affairs at the BMICH, on 13th November, 2000.

Since the early stirring of regional co-operation, nearly twenty years ago, SAARC has logged an impressive record of achievement in the service of the peoples of our region, thus confounding its denigrators, those who predicted that SAARC would be still-born or would not survive its infancy.

From the moment of its birth SAARC faced formidable obstacles, some of which remain to this day. But in many areas of South Asian life considerable progress has been made in bringing together the peoples of the region, strengthening its institutions and building bridges between the governments of the constituent States.

The initiative for regional co-operation in South Asia was taken by Bangladesh. The first regional Foreign Secretaries' meeting took place in April 1981. The founding fathers of SAARC, knowing very well the tensions in bilateral relations that existed within the region decided that the wise approach to the development of regional co-operation in South Asia should be not to attempt to do too much too soon but to let the habit of co-operation develop gradually. Thus it was decided at the Colombo meeting in April 1981 that co-operation should initially be limited to non-contentious areas in the expectation that as the countries gain confidence in working with one another more complex issues could be tackled later. The first five areas selected for co-operation were apolitical - they were agriculture, telecommunications, rural development, meteorology and health and population issues. Two other vital matters were settled early - that no contentious issues would be put on the SAARC agenda and that SAARC decisions would be made by consensus, not by vote.

Over the succeeding years subjects such as women's issues and education were added to these areas of technical co-operation. With technical co-operation being intensified, the first signs of institutionalising what had hitherto been a series of adhoc arrangements appeared. The Foreign Ministers of the South Asian countries began to meet regularly from 1983 onwards. The SAARC Charter was adopted in 1985. The first summit was held in Dhaka in December 1985. A Secretariat with a Secretary-General and one Director from each member country was set up in Kathmandu by 1986.

That same year SAARC began addressing more complex issues. At the Bangalore Summit the late Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, introduced measures to promote people to people contacts. That may seem to be an obvious proposition now. It was not so then. In 1987, SAARC began a study on how it could co-operate in the economic and commercial spheres. Another landmark was the adoption in 1987 of the Regional Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism. This is perhaps the first regional instrument on this subject anywhere in the world. The Convention uses the practical yardstick of indiscriminate violence to define terrorism. It operates through an extradite or prosecute regime. 1987 also saw the commencement of co-operation on environmental issues, which too had a history of political sensitivity.

The relatively rapid expansion in the range of activities of SAARC was due to the fact that, as its founder had hoped, working together increased mutual confidence. Thus, from the very outset SAARC became an important confidence building mechanism for the South Asian region. Innovative practices, such as the 'Retreat' during summits, contributed to this result.

SAARC was inward looking in its early years. Some member countries were opposed to the development of external linkages. However, as confidence was gained and it became clear that the linkages would work for the collective benefit of the countries of the region, this opposition eased. By the early 1990s. SAARC had entered into Memoranda of Understanding with the specialised agencies of the United Nations system and had a collaborative arrangement with Japan.

The first half of the 1990s saw practical steps being taken as an outcome of the studies on economic issues which SAARC had commenced in 1987. The South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) to promote regional trade was signed in 1993 and it entered into force by 1995. People to people contacts were institutionalised through encouraging the establishment of a SAARC Trade Chamber as well as regional epex bodies bringing together South Asian professionals. An important development was the setting up in 1992 of the Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians. Around this time SAARC began holding subject specific Ministerial Meetings on issues relating to the environment, media, child welfare etc.

Since SAPTA came into being, much effort has been devoted to the negotiations on tariff reductions. Up to now three rounds of negotiations, covering some 5550 items out of an estimated 6000 tariff lines have been completed. But SAARC is conscious of its relatively slow pace in liberalizing intra-regional trade.

At the Male Summit in 1997 a number of significant decisions were made. The Heads of State agreed, on the proposal of India, to work towards achieving a Free Trade Area by the year 2001. They agreed, on the proposal of Pakistan, to establish a Group of Eminent Persons to undertake a comprehensive appraisal of SAARC and identify measures to revitalize and enhance the effectiveness of the Association. The Group will develop a long range vision and formulate a SAARC agenda for the year 2000 and beyond. They encouraged, under the provisions of the Charter, the development of specific projects relevant to the individual needs of three of more member States. They recognized that the aim of promoting peace, stability and amity and accelerated socio-economic co-operation may best be achieved by fostering good neighbourly relations, relieving tensions and building confidence. They agreed, on the proposal of Sri Lanka, that "a process of informal political consultations would prove useful in this regard". This concept was unthinkable some years ago. SAARC has moved a long way from the initial decision to ban contentious issues from its agenda. Each of these decisions taken at Male was a significant milestone on the road of effective regional co-operation, no moribund organization takes such decisions.

The nuclear tests in 1998 by India and Pakistan were events that shook the region. Those who have no faith in SAARC expected a severe disruption of SAARC activities. That did not happen as a result of the tests. The prophets of doom predicted the end of SAARC. That did not happen either because they overlooked the role that SAARC was playing as a regional confidence building mechanism, and they ignored the overwhelming wish of the peoples of South Asia that SAARC should not only survive but prosper.

The Colombo Summit not only took place; it was, by common consent, a great success. It enabled the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to meet on home ground, as it were, in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear tests. It also provided a timely forum for the SAARC countries to focus on economic matters for the first time, to reflect on the lessons to be learnt from the financial difficulties which had engulfed the neighbouring region of South Asia, indicating that while globalisation has many credits, such as enhanced market access and exposure to innovative technologies, it also carries the danger that the contagion of adverse developments elsewhere in the global economic system can spread all too rapidly to other regions. South Asia, furthermore, understood, that a collective approach will be useful in coping with the downside of globalisation. The approach of SAARC towards these problems was twofold. Firstly, it wished to develop its potential economic strength through SAPTA and SAFTA and secondly, as a parallel measure to the first, SAARC members would henceforth, to the maximum extent possible, act in concert in multilateral discussions on trade and financial issues. In fact, Commerce Ministers and their Secretaries from the SAARC countries made collective preparations for the November 1999 WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle.

To do all this effectively, SAARC needs to increase its international profile. Positive interaction with like-minded regional organizations, is, therefore, very important for South Asia in this regard. The Colombo Summit accordingly gave a fresh impetus to efforts on the part of SAARC to strengthen its external linkages. It assessed the implications of international and other developments on the economies of South Asia. As the Colombo Summit Declaration concluded, the challenges and opportunities inherent in these fast evolving developments could best be met and the full potential of South Asia realized through effective, practical, regional and bilateral cooperation among member States.

Broadly, two approaches can be discerned. The first is to intensify economic cooperation among the seven member States themselves. The second is to evolve credible collective responses from the region to the volatile global economic environment in which we need to pursue our economic growth.

In the complex world of today there are complex problems to be resolved, whether on the purely intra-regional plane, or in the wider context of consultative multilateral processes. Indeed, the effort to understand the full measure of these complexities and to appreciate the need for better informed, coherent and practical strategies has itself been a revealing, and indeed sobering, experience for SAARC.

Thus the negotiations on tariff reductions under SAPTA which had already been in progress when the Colombo Summit was convened in 1998, were analysed with an increase sense of realism and pragmatism. The need was realized for extending deeper preferential tariff concessions to those products which were being actively traded. Greater focus was placed on the removal of structural impediments. The domestic content requirement under SAPTA had to be, and was indeed, reduced. Accordingly, the negotiations in Kathmandu last year sharpened the negotiating process and brought to light practical aspects which needed closer attention. I am certain that the meeting of Senior Officials this week will be able to examine the impediments greater progress on SAPTA and provide firm recommendations to higher decision-making bodies.

Similarly, the first meeting of the Committee of Experts which convened in Kathmandu shortly after the Tenth Summit had a preliminary look at the draft treaty framework for a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA). (To be continued)

The experts identified a number of issues on which more decisive work was required if the treaty text was to be finalized by the end of 2001. These included issues such as the Rules of Origin: revenue compensation mechanisms; graduated time-framers for accession by individual member states given there asymmetries, and so on. In respect of the last mentioned issues, SAARC has benefited from studying the experiences of the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in considering the staggering of time-frames.

Following discussions at the last Council of Ministers in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, in April 1999, and discussions between the European Commission and the SAARC Secretariat, a Declaration was made by the European Union to grant GSP concessions to SAARC products through the regional accumulation of Rules of Origin. Practical modalities for deriving benefit from this preferential treatment would also need to be worked out and this meeting in Colombo could direct attention to that question.

In terms of economic growth, the relevant statistics for South Asia as a region clearly indicate upward mobility. However, these are not always mirrored in the region's social indicators. South Asia is a region of immense asymmetries, both within as well as between nations. Poverty alleviation measures in each of the member States are necessarily based on specific policies and priorities, constraints and assets unique to each individual country. The task of framing common strategies for the social upliftment of the region is not easy. The offer of the Government of Pakistan to host a meeting of SAARC Finance/Planning Ministers on Poverty Alleviation to examine all the issues involved needs to be considered.

On the question of specific social indicators, the Colombo Summit felt the need to develop, beyond national plans of action, a regional programme of action including a specific role for SAARC. Heads of State and Government decided accordingly on the development of a Social Charter. This would focus on drawing up targets to be achieved across the region in areas such as poverty alleviation, population stabilization, the empowerment of women, human resources development, the promotion of health and nutrition, and the protection of children. If benchmarks are to be established they should be, as my colleague the External Affairs Minister of India put it, "realistic not idealistic targets". The delegation of Sri Lanka at the last Council of Ministers introduced a concept paper for the drafting of a Social Charter. The Government of Sri Lanka would like to convene a meeting of Government representatives in Colombo in the first half of next year to move forward the drafting process.

This trend of wide public interest extending to other areas of activity in South Asia as well, is most welcome and needs to be encouraged, and where possible, brought into interaction with the official SAARC process. If there has been a slackening of inter-Governmental encounters in SAARC over the past two years, professional and other contacts, co-operation and collaboration - people to people contacts of all kinds - stretching across national boundaries have, on the other hand, been heightened during that period.

The contribution of the National Chambers of Commerce and Industry of South Asia in facilitating the constructive engagement of the private sectors in regional economic initiatives has already been welcomed at Summit level.

The Economic Co-operation Conferences organized by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry have provided opportunities for interaction on regional economic concerns and practical inputs for SAPTA and SAFTA as well as on negotiating positions for WTO and other multilateral fora. Most recently, the South Asian Business Leaders' Summit in Bangalore helped to project the economic potential and opportunities afforded by each individual SAARC country to the South Asian region as a whole.

Beyond the commercial and business sector, professional associations recognized by SAARC have established linkages in all the South Asian countries. These include the Legal Profession Architects, Town Planners, Ophthalmologists, Accountants, Cardiologists, Management Development Institutions and University Women in addition to, of course, Parliamentarians and Speakers. On their own initiative, the Election Commissioners of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka met in Kathmandu last year to discuss and evolve guidelines for the conduct of free and fair elections in the region.

These are other groups, I understand, which wish to be accorded recognition by SAARC including Computer Associations Master Printers, Women Entrepreneurs, Medical Councils and the Writers of South Asia. As the Secretary-General noted at a recent SAARCLAW Conference in Kathmandu such functional linkages augur well for emerging consensus among many vibrant and active sectors of our societies. Such a large array of contacts among our professional associations will surely enhance confidence and promote closer relations among South Asians notwithstanding the political problems that sometimes inhibit healthy co-operation in the region.

Whatever the political climate may be at a given point of time, a sense of South Asia is clearly evident among our peoples, and is bound to grow. No region in the world is a monolithic structure. South Asians, like everybody else everywhere, will not be able to agree on everything. The Heads of State at the Colombo Summit recognized that South Asia, while reflecting a rich, complex and varied plurality of cultural and religious traditions, is heir to a profound common civilization continuum.

In respect of the cultural dimension, and here I speak in particular of the distinctive arts of South Asia, the Government of Sri Lanka wishes to host a meeting of SAARC Secretaries of Cultural Affairs to develop Sri Lanka's offer, welcomed at the Tenth Summit, to prepare a practical action plan to network national cultural institutes. The objective would be to establish a South Asian Cultural Centre. I have already addressed my colleagues, the Foreign Ministers, directly in this regard and the Sri Lanka delegation will present its proposals at the Senior Officials' Meeting which opens today.

In a sense, regional co-operation may be seen as complementary to, or supportive of, the overall process of global interaction on issues, problems and solutions. The interdependence of States, economies, markets, peoples and even ways of life has already become a vivid and inescapable reality. However, efforts towards regional co-operation may be seen as being somewhat at variance with such a setting of global interdependence and interaction, especially in a region like South Asia, where countries are striving to foster co-operation in non-controversial functional areas whilst avoiding engagement in political controversies. Some countries may be inclined to feel that direct access to global markets may be more beneficial than relying on unpredictable and often unstable regional markets.

Our philosophy in SAARC is to see regionalism as providing the building blocks towards an equitable global system. SAARC is not alone in this belief, as demonstrated by the increasing tendency for the establishment of groupings that are either regional in nature or have distinct commonalities. It would not be unreasonable to hold that developing countries see these new groupings as complementing the rather slow progress of global multilateralism, through the UN system. Nobody seriously argues that because members of a regional group are also members of other groups, regional or international in character, the first regional group becomes redundant.

It is distinctly possible, 25 years from now, or even perhaps 50 years from now, that there would be a United States of Europe with a common currency, something unthinkable 50 years ago. But those who had hoped that would happen, knew it would happen. Their reading of the historical situation at that time told them it had to happen. I say the same thing about SAARC. It has to happen. We will overcome the problems that beset us now. There are problems that bedevil relations among some of us. They are intractable, but not insoluble. There is a vast reservoir of goodwill among all the peoples of our region which in time will propel the member States concerned to get together, to bury their differences, and move SAARC along.

One of the real achievements of SAARC over the past years has been the bonding of our professions, all kinds of professions - doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, teachers - all kinds of professions and vocations are working together. It is a natural process for peer groups to collaborate in their pursuit of shared interests. I wish, and hope very much, and I am confident, that they will strength the links between them. There are so many natural links between them. There is more and more business being done jointly in the region. Out of this intricate network of contacts strong ties will grow that Governments will not be able to ignore. The future of SAARC, I would say, will not be in the hands of Governments. It will be in the hands of the people. And it is the people, I am confident, who are going to ensure, who are going to insist, that SAARC must be kept alive, functional and positive.