"It is a great honour and privilege for me to
welcome you all to New Delhi for the 14th SAARC Summit. Excellencies,
Please allow me to express, on behalf of all member states, our deep appreciation
for the excellent leadership that Bangladesh has provided to SAARC during
its Chairmanship over the last one year. I must also thank the SAARC Secretary
General and the SAARC Secretariat for their commendable contribution to
SAARC and the preparatory work for this Summit.
I also wish to welcome President Hamid Karzai and the Islamic Republic
of Afghanistan into the SAARC fraternity. India feels privileged that
Afghanistan’s first SAARC Summit, as a full member is being hosted
by India.
I also welcome amidst us, the People’s Republic of China, Japan,
Republic of Korea, the United States of America and the European Union,
who are Observers to this Summit.
South Asia is in the midst of an unprecedented political and economic
transformation. The political transitions, painful as they may be, are
something that each one of us has to work out for ourselves, within our
countries and between our governments. I see signs of hope that our governments
are now addressing the bilateral political issues that have prevented
us from achieving our potential. We must now make a break with the past
and join hands to realize our common shared destiny.
There is also today economic vibrancy and social change in every country
of South Asia. Never before has it been truly within our capacity to envisage
a future where our people are free of the twin curses of poverty and disease.
It is possible today. It is here that SAARC has the real opportunity to
realize the goals of our Charter: “to promote the welfare of the
peoples of South Asia and to accelerate economic growth, social progress
and cultural development in the region.”
The question before us is whether we will seize this unique opportunity
that beckons us all. Can we make this association of states touch and
improve the lives of our peoples?
Connectivity -- physical, economic and of the mind, enabling us to use
fully our geographical and resource endowments, has historically been
the key to our region’s peace and prosperity. South Asia has flourished
most when connected to itself and the rest of the world.
The SAARC Rally that we have just flagged off, and the popular response
that it has evoked, are graphic reminders of the potential of connectivity.
The study for a regional multi-modal transport system has given us a useful
basis to carry this work forward. As an immediate step, I propose that
we link all our capitals through direct flights.
However, the dream of full regional connectivity will not be realized
merely by building roads and railways. We must commit to actually making
the travel freer and easier. As an immediate step, India is announcing
a unilateral liberalization of visas for students, teachers, professors,
journalists and patients from SAARC countries. Let us aim to double the
intra-SAARC flow of tourists in the next five years.
We should encourage our civil society to interact and develop the habit
of cooperative thinking. Our agreement to establish a South Asia University,
as a world-class institution of learning, will be an important symbol
of the connectivity of ideas and of our youth that would build the knowledge
economies of the future.
There is an ongoing process of building an open and integrated market
from the Himalayas to the Pacific, covering a vast and dynamic economic
region. SAFTA could have a major role to play in this new emerging architecture.
India is ready to accept asymmetrical responsibilities, opening her markets
to her South Asian neighbours without insisting on reciprocity. I am happy
to announce today that we will allow duty free access to India before
the end of this year to our South Asian neighbours who are Least Developed
Countries and further reduce the sensitive list in respect of these countries.
It is time that SAARC Region began to address global issues and to consider
how we might do so together. Energy security, food security and climate
change are all issues that impact on our development strategies and which
need our focused attention.
All of South Asia is now or will soon be short of energy. A South Asian
energy community could start by harmonizing systems and methods and grid
structures and ultimately move on to an energy exchange with energy markets
that cover the whole South Asian region. Promoting appropriate local technologies
for harnessing renewable energy is an area we could consider for future
cooperation.
We are taking a first step towards improving food security by setting
up a Regional Food Bank at this Summit. It will meet shortages and losses
caused by natural calamities such as floods and droughts.
I have a compelling vision of an inclusive, plural and rapidly developing
South Asia playing its role in an interdependent world’s economic
development and peaceful evolution. I am therefore particularly happy
that this Summit should see the high level presence of observers from
outside the region. In the coming years, SAARC will learn to work with
our partners from outside the region evolving ways of involving them in
our progress.
To realize our hopes, we need SAARC to be an efficient instrument implementing
what we member states seek. After several years of effort, the time has
come to move SAARC from a declaratory phase to action and implementation.
If we can complete work on the tools that we need, such as the SAARC Development
Fund, and work realistically with each other, there is no reason why we
cannot translate the vision of our Charter into a solid reality.
However, a primary requirement for the fulfillment of our vision of prosperity
and cooperation in South Asia is peace.
We should therefore implement in a meaningful and sincere manner the commitments
and pledges to root out terrorism so as to create the atmosphere in which
our endeavours can succeed.
We stand today at a moment of great opportunity. It was once said that,
“positive expectations have a way of leading to positive outcomes”.
I believe that time has now come for SAARC to show that this indeed is
so. Let us work together to make it happen.”
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