New Delhi, February 19
India is ready to participate in the twice-postponed 13th summit of South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) in Bangladesh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be willing to travel to Dhaka anytime between March 25 and April 12 this year when the Indian Parliament’s Budget session will be in recess.
This decision of the Government of India was conveyed by External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh to the Pakistani leadership during his February 15-17 Pakistan visit. Pakistan is the current Chairman of SAARC and as such it is Islamabad’s responsibility to organise the summit meeting.
In the next few days, the SAARC Chairman will be consulting other member states of the seven-member regional grouping to work out exact dates of the Dhaka summit. It is understood that New Delhi’s decision will be viewed as a step in the right direction by Bangladesh, the incoming Chairman of SAARC, and will also act as a diplomatic confidence building measure between India and Bangladesh.
When the Dhaka
summit was postponed for the first time in January this year due to the tsunami disaster, Bangladesh had no choice but to fall in line. However, the second postponement earlier this month at the instance of India pulling out of the Dhaka summit because of the law and order situation in Bangladesh and the February 1 royal coup in Nepal triggered off an angry reaction from Dhaka.
The Indian decision not to participate in the Dhaka summit led to fresh tensions in
India-Bangladesh relations which have been rather frosty since Begum Khaleda Zia became Prime Minister of Bangladesh more than three years ago.
Diplomatic sources here told The Tribune today that in New Delhi’s perception the situation had changed on both counts because of which India cancelled its participation in the 13th SAARC summit in the first week of this month. For one, the law and order situation in Bangladesh seems to have improved.
As for the royal coup in Nepal, India has already conveyed its tough stand against the event by recalling its Ambassador in Nepal, Mr Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, for consultations. Moreover, India has also demonstrated to Kathmandu that it is not alone in its protest as the United States and the United Kingdom also recalled their ambassadors for consultations the same day India did. This synergy among India, US and UK cannot go unnoticed by King Gyanendra as the three countries constitute the biggest donors for Nepal without whose support Nepal cannot survive.
Mr Mukherjee will be leaving
for Kathmandu tomorrow. Soon after his arrival in Kathmandu he will seek a meeting with King Gyanendra and will convey to him the Government of India’s stand. Mr Mukherjee has already been briefed at length by the Ministry of External
Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office on this.
India’s position on Nepal is that King Gyanendra should urgently restore the normal democratic processes, release political prisoners and lift censorship on media.
Significantly, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw who held talks with Mr Natwar Singh here yesterday, went on record to say that India and UK, along with the US and the European Union, had been and would continue to be in close touch with one another concerning further developments in Nepal.
UK’s position on Nepal is that though the situation there was a problem in India’s backyard, it was a matter of concern for the UK too because it had the potential to fuel extremism and terrorism and spread instability far beyond its immediate area. On Nepal, Mr Straw said the UK, along with the US and the EU, were working closely with India and had temporarily withdrawn their ambassadors from Kathmandu.
