The foreign ministers’ conference, held under the aegis of the SAARC council of ministers, achieved a significant outcome in the two-day meeting in Dhaka. The major achievement was the fixing of a specific date for the next summit to be held in India. Besides arriving at a number of important decisions like operation of the South Asian Development Fund (which will start functioning with a capital of $300 million) and observance of SAARC Media Year in 2008, the conference dwelt on implementation mechanism of SAFTA. Given some misunderstandings, the meeting however referred the SAFTA issue to the upcoming meeting of the commerce ministers.

The meet assumed special significance since follow-up actions as regards the decisions of the “Dhaka Declaration” came in for thorough examination and other matters of interest also figured prominently. The conference fixed April 3 and 4, 2007, as the dates for the conference of the leaders in New Delhi. The fixing of the date has often been a problem in the past given the political and other differences between and am-ong the member countries.

The decision to admit the US, South Korea and the European Union as “observers” in SAARC summit is another recognition of the growing acceptance of the SAARC at the international level. Earlier, two Asian economic powers — Japan and China — were accepted as observers. It was also decided in the SAARC meet in November last year to allow Afghanistan to join in as a new member. Accordingly, it attended the meeting of the foreign ministers as an observer. Kabul is most likely to take the seat of a regular member of the forum at the next summit.

SAARC now appears to be more pronounced and action-oriented. It is also undergoing expansion and changes making it more representative. Consequently, both potentials and challenges for the forum are increasing. Economically powerful nations and blocs having close links with South Asia are being accepted as observers. This is likely to be beneficial for the grouping, which requires innovative economic interactions and assistance in its gigantic quest of improving the quality of life of its 1.4 billion people. However, it is necessary to remain alert that the forum does not come under political influence from links with powerful countries.

The meeting was considered an important one for Nepal as it had missed several previous ministerial-level meetings because of the struggle for restoration of democracy against the royal regime.

SAARC has a number of issues at hand, including strengthening of the Kathmandu-based SAARC secretariat and various national and sectoral focal points discussed during the last summit, and consideration of the mechanism and strengthening of the regional centres. Disputes between India and Pakistan at bilateral level are still exist, which cast a shadow of doubt over the prospects of the implementation of SAARC programmes. But the foreign ministers’ conference has been described as “productive” by all the member nations and is expected to provide the much-needed fillip to the SAARC.

Chowdhury, a journalist, writes for THT from Dhaka