NEW DELHI : 10 Apr 2020
Pakistan is aiming to score narrow political points by attempting to bring India’s initiatives to collectively fight the coronavirus pandemic in the South Asia region under the formal umbrella of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) grouping, two people familiar with the development said Thursday.
This follows Pakistan boycotting a video conference on 8 April with trade officials of the SAARC region on Wednesday to discuss ways to ensure trade within the grouping is not affected by the covid-19 outbreak. In a statement, Pakistan’s foreign office had said such efforts would be effective only if spearheaded by the group’s secretariat instead of India.
One of the two people cited above pointed out that if the SAARC secretariat took up the initiative, Pakistan would be free to block India’s initiatives and proposals by invoking the SAARC charter of provisions and rules of procedure.
“It is an attempt to score narrow political goals while people of the region are facing the coronavirus crisis,” the first person cited above said on Thursday.
Commerce officials of the SAARC countries on Wednesday had broadly agreed to identify new ways to “sustain and expand” the intra-regional trade to offset the huge economic cost of the coronavirus. They also discussed on creating a larger framework of trade facilitation and highlighted the need to enhance the volume of intra-SAARC trade given that the pandemic was likely to have a major impact on the region.
The commerce officials meeting followed an India-initiated video conference of SAARC leaders on 15 March. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had then suggested that the member nations of the grouping should come together to jointly fight the pandemic.
SAARC comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Created in the mid 1980s, SAARC has little to show for itself given that progress on issues like regional integration and connectivity has been slow mainly due to infighting between India and Pakistan. Pakistan was to host a summit of SAARC leaders in 2016 but India, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh pulled out citing Pakistan’s support to terrorism as not conducive for regional cooperation. No summit of SAARC has been held since. ( LiveMint )
