United against terror
At the 13th summit in Dhaka SAARC countries agree on a united effort to combat terrorism in South Asia. 

North East News Agency

Leaders of SAARC countries have agreed on a united effort to combat terrorism in the region. Bangladesh Prime Minister Bengum Khaleda Zia, who took over as the new chairperson of SAARC, said countries in South Asia were all united on combating terrorism.

“There should be zero tolerance for cross-border terrorism and for harbouring of hostile insurgent groups and criminal elements,” said Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. He also sought bold steps for promotion of regional economic cooperation, poverty alleviation and energy security

Bangladesh Prime Minister Bengum Khaleda Zia, noted that four countries including Bangladesh have ratified the Additional Protocol to the SAARC Regional Convention on Counter-terrorism to deal effectively with the financing of terrorism and hoped the remaining three countries would expedite their ratification so that it could enter into force by the end of this year.

Observing that terrorism has emerged as a serious threat to international peace, security, stability and democracy, Nepal’s King Gyanendra warned that the scourge affecting the Kingdom was certain to affect the whole of    South Asia.

Further the Prime Minister assured that India would do nothing to hurt the interests of Bangladesh. He also pointed out that ‘some positive steps’ had been indicated by Dhaka on curbing North-East insurgent camps on its soil.

“There are no insurmountable issues between us (India and Bangladesh),” Dr. Singh said adding that by helping Bangladesh, we would be helping ourselves.” “That is the motivation that guides me and my government,” he asserted.

Dr. Singh felt that his trip to Dhaka and meeting with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had ‘helped improve the atmosphere.’ “We raised all those issues. Recently there was a meeting between Home Secretaries of the two countries during which         the issue was discussed extensively,” he informed.

The Prime Minister said he had discussed various issues with Zia and her response was ‘constructive’.  There was a great deal of commonalities between  India and Bangladesh and the two neighbours could work out joint strategies to collectively fight problems like poverty, he said. Dr. Singh also said he has invited the Bangladeshi Prime Minister to     visit India and she has accepted   the invitation.

The 13th SAARC Summit concluded with the signing of    three major agreements — avoidance of double taxation, liberalisation of visa regime and SAARC Arbitration Council.

Announcing the far-reaching decisions at the concluding session of SAARC, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed to member countries to resolve a few outstanding issues to facilitate implementation of South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) by January 1, 2006.

“I would like to underline we must expedite the process of resolving a few outstanding issues that separate us from the final agreement on SAFTA” to implement it from January 1 next year, Dr. Singh said speaking as the Chairman of the next summit which has been decided to be held in India. He said: “It will be fair to say that this summit will be remembered for several substantive outcomes that have emerged in Dhaka.”

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