Kathmandu, January 3
Heightened Indo-Pak tension and the military buildup on the borders cast their shadow on the eleventh SAARC summit beginning here tomorrow. It set the stage for concerted action against the scourge of terrorism, coupled with drawing up a definitive road map for poverty alleviation and social action.

Even as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee arrived here this afternoon for the much postponed SAARC summit, the foreign ministers of the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan wholeheartedly supported New Delhi’s stand that cross-border terrorism should be crushed in the region without losing sight of the recent developments and the war against international terrorism.

Mr Vajpayee drew pointed attention to the “spectre of terrorism” and characterised it as “most unfortunate that our region has nurtured terrorist activities of international dimension.” He was categoric that SAARC must work on eradicating the menace of terrorism from this region so that resources are freed for developmental activities.

“We owe this to the future generations of South Asians,” he observed. Without naming Pakistan, Mr Vajpayee drew pointed attention to some states following a policy of sponsoring and sheltering terrorism and terrorist organisations. He said the coordinated efforts of the international community should be aimed at pressurising them to abandon it.

In this context, the Prime Minister described UN Security Council resolutions 1368 and 1373 as steps in the right direction and said, “It required firm political will of the freedom loving world to implement them.”

Simultaneously, the emphasis at the second session of the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting was on speeding up the enabling legislation on the convention on terrorism and drugs. The ministerial conclave discussed the social charter and directed that the Secretary-General put up the draft for the consideration of the reconstituted Inter-Government Expert Group (IEGP) later this year.

The SAARC Council of Ministers went into a huddle late at night to give finishing touches to the SAARC Declaration. Barring Pakistan, which expressed reservations about the wording on meeting the challenge of cross- border terrorism, all other member states favoured sustained determined multilateral action in this regard.

The least developed countries (LDCs)in South Asia are looking to India as a power in the region for tackling the widespread problem of poverty. At the same time, much is in evidence of a new resolve among the SAARC member-states to get the South-Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) going by the end of this year.

Two conventions will be adopted on controlling trafficking in women and promoting child welfare. The informal bilateral dialogue at the “Retreat” which formed an important part of SAARC summits is bound to have some unpleasant aspects this time because of the heightened chill in Indo-Pak relations. Accounting for one-fifth of the global population, SAARC countries underscore that the region has the potential for rapid economic growth.

The SAARC Heads of State or Government are expected to deliberate on the admission of Afghanistan into the grouping. The end of the Taliban regime in Kabul and the advent of a broad-based interim government in that war-ravaged country is expected to provide urgency to its admission in the SAARC grouping though a formal decision in this regard is unlikely in Kathmandu.

A discussion on according observer status to Japan is also expected to be taken up at the summit level.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan in the forenoon today. The discussions centered on fighting terrorism.

All ministers concurred that terrorism had gone beyond anything that one could expect or imagine. “It was imperative for all the countries in South Asia to take note of the recent international developments and SAARC must do everything to contain and defeat such machinations,” the foreign ministers said.