Food, disaster under focus
Leaders of eight South Asian nations open a summit meeting in the Maldives today to discuss regional connectivity, climate change, food security, trade and good governance, diplomatic sources said.
The 17th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) has brought together presidents and prime ministers from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan at Addu Atoll of the Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached the Maldives yesterday afternoon leading a 50-member delegation to the meeting. The delegation includes four members of Hasina's family, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, and Ambassador-at-large Muhammad Ziauddin.
The 2-day summit will focus on ways to bridge the differences among the eight member nations and to work together for economic uplift of the region's 1.5 billion people, two-thirds of whom are living, according to the World Bank, on less than 2 dollars a day.
Initiated by Bangladesh, Saarc was launched in Dhaka in 1985 to forge regional cooperation aimed at economic development and reducing poverty.
In its 26-year history the forum has made little progress in achieving its goals with diplomatic analysts blaming the poor performance on bilateral conflicts, especially between India and Pakistan.
The Saarc charter excludes bilateral disputes of the member nations from its agenda, even though the summit provides the leaders with opportunities to meet each other to discuss their bilateral issues.
Diplomatic sources in Dhaka said this time Saarc has chosen an appropriate theme: Building Bridges. This will allow the leaders to focus more on deliberating on ways to establish regional connectivity and promote political dialogue to reduce differences among the members.
"This time the Saarc leaders seem to be serious to prove that the forum is not just a talking shop," said a South Asian diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. "The leaders are expected to take some concrete measures on poverty alleviation and climate change issues," he said.
The diplomatic sources said four deals covering food security, collective response in times of natural disasters, seed bank, trade and good governance are expected to be signed during the 2-day summit.
They said the Saarc leaders will review the progress in the implementation of the decisions taken in earlier summits. Poverty alleviation, economic cooperation, Saarc Development Fund, food security, connectivity, energy and climate change are some of the major issues on the agenda.
Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh today on the sideline of the summit.
Foreign office sources said the two leaders will follow up on the talks held during Manmohan's Sept 6-7 visit to Dhaka. Hasina is expected to press for an early signing of a deal on sharing the Teesta river water, an issue left unsolved during Manmohan's Dhaka tour.
The two leaders are expected to focus on progress in implementation of the key decisions taken during Singh's visit.
Hasina will also meet other Saarc leaders during her 3-day stay in the Maldives.
Prime ministers of India and Pakistan are expected to meet on the summit sideline to discuss their disputes mainly over Kashmir and terror attacks in their countries.
The summit is also expected to adopt a separate Saarc Charter of Democracy, a proposal mooted by Dhaka.
Besides, Turkey's application for observer status in Saarc will also be taken up during the summit. Currently Saarc has nine observers, including the United States, EU, UK, China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and Iran.
The two-hour inauguration ceremony will begin at 2:30pm (local time) at a newly-built million-dollar two-storey convention centre, the island nation's largest such facility with 3,000 seating capacity.
Leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will address the inaugural session.
Around 175 journalists will cover the summit. The Maldives is hosting the summit for the third time.
The 16th Saarc Summit was held in Bhutan last year.
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