ISLAMABAD: India has hinted at pulling out of the 2018 summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) scheduled to be held in Pakistan, or even pulling away from the initiative altogether.
The issue of organising the SAARC summit was discussed in a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal’s premier KP Sharma Oli, who was in New Delhi on a three-day visit.
“The prime minister (Modi) mentioned that he very enthusiastically participated in the Kathmandu (SAARC) summit, but given the current state of play where there is cross-border terrorism – and this is a disruptive force in the region. It is difficult in such circumstances to proceed with such initiatives,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters, according to Times of India.
SAARC summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit also assumes the chair of the association.
The last summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014. The following meeting, scheduled to take place in Islamabad in 2016, had to be postponed after several members, led by India, pulled out on the pretext of ‘security’. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to attend the summit following India’s nudging.
Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative.
During his visit to Kathmandu last month, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had sought Oli’s support for convening the SAARC summit in Islamabad this year.
In a speech during visit to the SAARC Secretariat, Abbasi had said Pakistan had always strived to make the organisation a vibrant vehicle for regional cooperation based on the principle of sovereign equality. He also noted that SAARC had immense potential for strengthening the economies of the member countries and promoting collaboration in various areas of mutual significance.
Published in Daily Times, April 9th 2018.
