BackIndia’s interest in Saarc is intact: Vikas Swarup
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup says India's priority is to promote closer cooperation and economic integration in the South Asian region
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New Delhi: India on Thursday refused to close the door on Pakistan and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) regional grouping following heightened tensions between the two neighbours over a terrorist attack in Kashmir in September.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said India’s priority was to “promote closer cooperation and economic integration in our (South Asian) region."
“Our interest in Saarc remains intact but our concern is that the connectivity, trade, including MFN (Most Favoured Nation status under World Trade Organisation) and cooperation that Saarc requires and the terror-free atmosphere needed for these initiatives is not there due to the actions of one country in our neighbourhood," Swarup said.
This was why “all Saarc countries wrote to the Chair, i.e. Nepal, saying in one voice that in the current atmosphere it is not possible to participate in the proposed Saarc Summit in Islamabad," he said referring to India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan announcing their withdrawal from a Saarc summit that was to be hosted by Islamabad in November.
“We remain committed to Saarc and its principles. Our intention is not to throw out the baby with the bath water. It is in cleaning up the bath water," Swarup added. Saarc comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Swarup’s allusion was to Pakistan’s use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy to achieve its political goals vis a vis India and Afghanistan.
In the case of Afghanistan, Pakistan is hoping to install a friendly regime in Kabul through sustained attacks by Pakistan-backed Taliban militants.
India-Pakistan ties have been in free fall since July after Pakistan described a militant shot dead by India as a “Kashmiri leader" and a “martyr". The 18 September attack by terrorists on an Indian army garrison in Uri heightened tensions.
On 27 September, India said it was pulling out of the Saarc summit that was to be hosted by Islamabad on 9-10 November. On 29 September, India said it had conducted surgical strikes against terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control in Kashmir.
On criticism that the declaration following a summit of the five emerging economies—Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (Brics)—in Goa over the weekend did not strongly condemn terrorism, Swarup said the Brics summit held in Goa on 15-16 October “contains the strongest ever language against terrorism among all past Brics summits."
“The word terrorism/terror features some 37 times in the Declaration," he said.
“When we negotiate in a forum like Brics, the attempt is to find common ground and to express it in a declaration. I think you will all agree that we did find common ground on the issue of terrorism," he said adding that the Brics agreed leaders “for the first time called upon all states to prevent terrorist action from their territories" and also said that “religion is no justification for terrorism."
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