India urges regional unity

India yesterday said political differences among South Asian countries should not be allowed to stop the processes of regional integration in the region.
"We should not allow political differences to stop the processes of South Asian integration," Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said inaugurating the third South Asian Relations Conference.
He noted that South Asia has more than its fair share of insurgency, radicalism, terrorism and extremism and said "but none of these issues has prevented South Asia from emerging as one of the fastest growing sub-regions of the world in the past decade and out-performing most other sub-regions".
Menon said it was an open question whether the region has institutions to address the real issues of political instability and security challenges it faced.
He urged scholars attending the conference to discuss cooperation in security frameworks and architecture for South Asian region to address issues like terrorism, maritime security and cyber security.
Over 30 scholars and experts from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan are participating in the two-day conference organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs and the Association of Asian Scholars.