The 17th SAARC Summit, held on 10-11 November at Addu City in Maldives, will be remembered for three things - for the inspiring speech of the outgoing Chair, Bhutanese Prime Minister, his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh's direction-setting growth agenda for the entire South Asian region and for the way the Maldivian Government had organised it. As the incoming Chair of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed can take credit for personally taking charge of the organisation of the Summit, putting up the required infrastructure like the 1500-seat convention centre in what was marsh land even a year earlier, and for providing inspirational leadership to his youthful team. In his inaugural day speech, the Bhutanese Prime Minister argued that GDP-linked growth, based on the Brentwood scheme, had failed the world, and they should look for an alternative based on the 'happiness' of the people.
"South Asia… is becoming more powerful and more prominent than at any other point in our history… the future is ours to shape," President Nasheed said in his inaugural address. "For too long, South Asia was considered a sideshow in the theatre of global politics but today, we occupy the centre-stage. The eyes of the world are upon us. This is our time to shine," he added. "We can only achieve (our) goals, if we work together… because our success, is dependent on our neighbour's success; economic stagnation in one part of our region, dampens prosperity in another; instability in one member state, causes insecurity for us all," the President said. "We can only make progress if we integrate our economies, ensure our financial system is stable, and foster a political climate that creates confidence," he said.
India, taking full cognizance of the responsibilities that it have to shoulder as the largest economy, population centre and landmass in the region, rolled out a fresh set of initiatives aimed at greater economic integration and mutual cooperation among SAARC nations.On most issues on the economic front, the Indian position was a substantive contribution to South Asian integration, as outlined by the presidential address of President Nasheed and underlined later by the 'Addu Declaration'. In his speech, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had this to say: "I recognise that India has a special responsibility that flows from the geography of our region and the size of our economy and market," Specifically, he said, "We should work to create a climate whereby the wealth generated by us is invested back into our region. This will be the most ringing endorsement of our vision of a regional economy without boundaries," he added. "We should seek imaginative ways to create new avenues and sources of growth and investment in South Asia. If we can create favourable conditions for development at home, there is no reason why our investors should seek greener pastures elsewhere. The complete normalization of trade relations will create huge opportunities for mutually beneficial trade within South Asia," he said further and called for expediting the finalisation of the SAARC Agreement on investment.
Taken to its logical conclusion, such an agreement could provide for large-scale private sector investments within the SAARC countries but not in scales that host-nations within the SAARC could aspire for and absorb. Market forces and economies of scale would dictate such investments, and it would hence be necessary for encouraging investors to identity areas and sectors where they could collaborate, in terms of identifying pooling their resources, including human resources, identifying markets and promoting them, a pre-requisite for making investments viable over the medium and the long term. Prime Minister Singh also cautioned the private sector in the region, saying, "Our industries have to learn to compete if our economies are to have a future in this globalised world that we live in." "Competition," he pointed out, "begins at home".
For its part, India, Prime Minister Singh declared, had reduced the Sensitive List for the Least Developed Countries under the South Asia Free Trade Area Agreement, from 480 to 25 tariff-lines. He said zero basic customs duty access will be given for all items removed with immediate effect. The Prime Minister also announced Indian concessions in education, tourism and cultural spheres for SAARC beneficiaries and/or through SAARC arrangements, taking off from where President Nasheed had left in his inaugural address. Likewise, the Prime Minister spoke about ecology and environment, which are also issues that are close to the heart of the host-leader. He also commended/exhorted the regional association on initiatives in rail and air connectivity, motor vehicle and telecommunication linkages, broadcasting and television exchanges, and the creation of a South Asian Postal Union. Prime Minister Singh said that the SAARC integration should move faster but at the same time cautioned that it should be done at a "pace we are all comfortable with".
The China factor
With China as among the nine with 'Observer' status participating in the Summit, the local media speculated about the possibility of Beijing's case for being made a 'Dialogue Partner' to the SAARC. If granted, China would have become the first 'Dialogue Partner', basing its case on the extensive investment and trade interest in the South Asian region. However, the Addu Declaration, in its penultimate paragraph, said that SAARC would "undertake a comprehensive review of all matters relating to SAARC's engagement with Observers, including the question of dialogue partnership, before the next session of the Council of Ministers in 2012".According to the local media, despite the interest shown in the matter by most member-nations, they respected India's sensitivity in the matter, also underscoring the SAARC tradition of consensus-based decision on all matters. However, as the Declaration indicated, the issue will come up before the SAARC Ministerial Meeting in the coming year, when greater clarity will emerge on larger issues of dialogue partnership, going beyond China's case.
For all the success of the Addu Summit, the future looks a mixed-bag, particularly over the short and medium terms, even otherwise. Wedded to human rights issues also at a personal-level, his having been declared 'Prisoner of Conscience' by Amnesty International when he was in the Opposition, President Nasheed suggested that SAARC could not keep democracy issues out of its realm, and cautiously mentioned that a dialogue about dialogue on the issue could be considered. This may have problems for most member-nations, at times including his. Maldives, as a member of the UNHRC in Geneva, is already deftly balancing its human rights profile under President Nasheed and its existing commitment to the Sri Lankan neighbour on the latter's record, which has come under increasing pressure from an influential section of the international community, whose views Maldives otherwise share.
There is also the inequity on the size of landmass, population and economy among the member-nations, and inherent suspicions, if not overcome before long, could lead to a situation in which motives would come to be attributed to larger nations for their willingness to contribute an equally equitable share to the common good - and dis-spiriting them, thus. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in the concluding part of his speech, the SAARC nations have to "learn to trust each other, and learn from each other. The security and the stability of our countries are closely inter-linked."
Singh exhorted fellow-leaders that they "cannot afford to allow the many problems we face to stand in the way of our ambitions and dreams". In this, he wanted them all to "challenge ourselves to do even better" - a spirit that was shared by all on the dais at the opening ceremony, yet not always put to use, considering in particular the perceived encouragement that extra-regional players have been purportedly getting from some of them, though in terms of investments at present. As the title and theme of the Summit read, it is here that the region's nations have to be seen as "Building Bridges" than elsewhere.
(The writer is a Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation)
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