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Saturday, July 28, 1998

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Stage set for PM-Sharif talks
From Shubhabrata Bhattacharya
Tribune News Service
COLOMBO, July 27 - Colombo looks very much like Chandigarh of the eighties — security barricades, bunkers, checks of vehicles — with the Army helping out the civilian police in providing a foolproof security cover for the 10th SAARC Summit.
Outside Colombo, though, security is not so obtrusive. A few journalists from the Indian team covering the summit today ventured out and drove to the picturesque hill town of Kandy. Only while entering Kandy did the vehicle get confronted by security checks. Enroute it was all peaceful and normal. We stopped at wayside stalls for tea and for coconut water (tender coconuts here are yellow, not green, like in India). Once out of Colombo, Chandigarh of the eighties did not come back to our minds.
The Sri Lankans apparently are taking no chances. And that explains the heavy bandobust around the venue.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrives here at 1 p.m. tomorrow. He will meet the Sri Lankan President, Ms Chandrika Bandarnaike Kumaratune, tomorrow evening.
The real action is reserved for Wednesday. The SAARC Summit begins at 10 a.m. But the strobelights will obviously be focussed on the 5 p.m. meeting between Mr. Vajpayee and Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif. Before the bilateral meeting with Pakistan, Mr Vajpayee will be lunching with the Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina.
In the afternoon, he will meet Bhutan's Chairman of Council of Ministers, Lyonpo Jigmi Yoeser Thinley. The King of Bhutan, Mr Jigme Wangchuk, with whom the original meeting was scheduled, has decided to send Bhutan's elected representatives to the SAARC meet. This, thus, will be a historic occasion: for the first time a bilateral meeting will take place between India and Bhutan minus the King of Bhutan.
The stage of the Vajpayee-Sharif talks has been set during the Foreign Secretary-level meetings, held till yesterday. Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Mr Gohar Ayub, and India's Minister of State for External Affairs, Ms Vasundhara Raje Scindia, will be meeting during the Minister-level meetings, which began today.
Meanwhile, Mr Vajpayee's visit has received good media attention here. The State-controlled "Daily News" of Colombo today carried a lead — letter to the editor: "Shri Vajpayee — Return of a friend of Sri Lanka". The letter, written by A. Kandappah of "Colombo 7", recalled the visits by previous Indian Prime Ministers and referred to the visits to this Island State by Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and Sarojini Naidu.
Referring to Mr Vajpayee's visit, the letter says: "Though his main agenda is to participate in the SAARC summit, he, hopefully, will give some of his time and attention to assist in our search for peace — within the limits of etiquette of diplomacy. Usually reliable sources inform we may be getting close to a resolution between our feuding factions".
"Any help the Indian Prime Minister can offer to break the deadlock and usher in lasting peace to Sri Lanka will endear him to the entire Sri Lankan people. It is significant, like all India's previous Prime Ministers and leading political players, Shri Vajpayee also will not encourage the dismemberment of the unitary character of the Sri Lankan State", the letter adds.

Summit to focus on fiscal cooperation
Tribune News Service
COLOMBO, July 27 — The two-day meeting of Foreign Ministers of SAARC countries began today. It will accelerate the pace for the main summit, which will be attended by the Heads of Government of the seven member nations, beginning on Wednesday.
Though overshadowed by the nuclear agenda of India and Pakistan, the summit will discuss the international economic situation in the light of the new challenges that the process of globalisation poses to the South Asian economies and consider ways in which the South Asian countries can strengthen regional cooperation to meet the challenges.
Programmes in the social sectors, particularly the SAARC poverty alleviation programme and issues relating to the welfare of women and children will be discussed by the seven- nation meet attended by Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
During the three-day summit, on Thursday, there will be a Retreat for SAARC leaders at the Beach Resort of Bentota, 65 km south of Colombo. The summit will end on Friday.
Wednesday afternoon has been set aside for informal bilateral meetings, the much awaited Atal Behari Vajpayee-Nawaz Sharif talks will take place on that day. Again, at Bentota, leaders will have an opportunity of interacting with each other away from the glare of the media.
The Council of Ministers meeting was preceded by a standing committee meeting at the Foreign Secretary level which ended yesterday. On July 25, a meeting of the SAARC Food Security Reserve Board was held.
The Food Security Reserve Board was set up as a result of the agreement reached at the third summit at Kathmandu. The reserve, which came into force on August 12, 1998, consists of 241,580 tonnes of foodgrains for use in emergency by any member country on request. India’s share in this reserve is the largest — 153,200 tonnes (which is approximately 63.4 per cent).
The first summit of the SAARC was held at Dhaka in December, 1985. India hosted the second summit in Bangalore (November, 1986). The third summit was in Kathmandu a year later. Pakistan played host in December, 1988. After a gap of two years, in November 1990, the fifth summit was held in Male, capital of the Maldives, which also played host to the ninth summit in May, 1997. Dhaka also hosted the seventh summit in 1993 and India hosted the eighth summit in 1995. Colombo was also the venue of the sixth summit in December, 1991. Thus, SAARC summit returns to the Sri Lankan Capital after a gap of six and a half years.
The tenth summit will review the various developments that have taken place since the Male meeting, which include the first SAARC Tourism Ministers meeting, held in Colombo; the third SAARC Environment Ministers conference at Male; the First SAARC Information Ministers meeting at Dhaka; the second meeting of the SAARC Commerce Ministers at Islamabad; the first SAARC Communication Ministers conference at Colombo.
The SAARC Tourism Ministers meeting adopted the Colombo resolution for promoting intra-SAARC tourism. It recommended the simplification of visa related procedures for SAARC countries, the promotion of direct air link between SAARC Capitals, and the simplification of customs formalities within the SAARC region.
The SAARC environment action plan was adopted in the Male Ministers-level meeting. It called for cooperation among SAARC members to enhance the environment management capabilities of the region. It also called for the establishment of a SAARC forestry centre and SAARC coastal zone management centre. It also agreed to present before the United Nations framework conventions on climate change (UNFCCC) a common SAARC position.
Easier travel for mediapersons; reduced tariff for media transmission and information material; holding of annual conference of Editors; regular exchange of TV and radio programmes; and discouraging negative projection of member countries by media in SAARC countries were among the highlights of the Dhaka meeting of Information Ministers held in April, 1998.
Preparation of a draft protocol outlining transition from South Asian Preferential Trade Arrangement (SAPTA) to South Asian Free Trade Arrangement (SAFTA) was the highlight of the SAARC Commerce Ministers held in Islamabad.
The first conference of SAARC Communication Ministers adopted a plan of action to promote cooperation in enhancement of telecommunication links, the utilisation of relevant information technologies to harness it for social and economic uplift, infrastructure development, optimal sharing of resources, and standardisation of equipment and human resource development.
The Colombo SAARC summit would also consider the report of the group of eminent persons (GEP) established by the mandate of the Male Declaration last year to undertake a comprehensive appraisal of SAARC and suggest ways to make it more effective as also to provide a future vision and SAARC perspective plan up to 2020.
The GEP has done an institutional appraisal as well as suggested a vision for the future. The GEP’s report will be presented by the Maldive President, Mr Abdul Gayoom, to the summit.
The GEP has suggested proposals for institutional restructuring of SAARC. The GEP report will be discussed at length by the leaders during the retreat on Thursday.
Another area which will attract the leaders' attention is the integrated programme of action (IPA), final touches to which were given in the secretary-level meet. SAARC so far has been functioning in a random and ad hoc manner. The IPA aims to give a shape to SAARC’s activities.