Kathmandu, September 5:

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Ramesh Nath Pandey, today said the use of democracy and human rights as instruments for furthering vested political interests is certain to give rise to conflict and tensions. Pandey was speaking at the tenth consultative meeting of the executive heads of sub-regional organisation and UNESCAP, which kicked off in Kathmandu today.

Terming the twenty-first century “the century of multiparty democracy”, he said democracy cannot be confined to a narrow scope of system of governance alone. “one-size-fits-all approach cannot work in a multicultural, multilingual, and multiethnic world,” he said. The executive heads and representatives of the secretariats of the SAARC, ASEAN, Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), Shanghai Cooperation, and the UNESCAP are attending the two-day consultative meeting.

Highlighting the continued threats posed by terrorism, Pandey said the prospects for genuine regional cooperation would be bleak if terrorism is not contained in a concerted manner — without employing double standards at local, national, regional, and global levels. He emphasised the need to evolve a coordinated mechanism involving all sub-regional organisations in Asia and the Pacific region to collectively respond to the threats posed by terrorism. Stating that continuing hikes in oil prices will have an adverse effect on the socioeconomic development of the region, he said energy security should be given due importance.