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South Asia summit salvaged after Nawaz-Modi handshake
KATHMANDU: A brief meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday salvaged a summit of South Asian leaders, with all eight countries clinching a last-minute deal to create a regional electricity grid.
The pact at the summit’s closing ceremony in the Nepali capital, will buttress Modi’s ambition for South Asia to become a viable economic counterweight to China, which has made sweeping inroads in the region. Modi shook hands with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at a mountain retreat outside Kathmandu and then again before the curtain went down on the conference. Television showed the two men smiling and exchanging a few words.
“Both are talking in a friendly manner,” Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Kumar Koirala told reporters, when asked if his country, as summit host, had helped break the ice. Except for these brief exchanges, the two leaders had spent most of the summit cold-shouldering each other, however. The squabbling between the rivals is widely blamed for the poor performance of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), initially founded with the goal of moving toward a European-style union.
Despite a free trade pact in force since 2006, high tariffs and curbs on movement limit trade among South Asian nations to just five percent of their total trade. The grouping’s failure to foster closer ties over the past three decades has left the way open for China to step in, by helping to build ports and roads. China has observer status at the grouping. Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin on Wednesday promised $30 billion for road building in South Asia over five years, and suggested increasing trade to $150 billion over the same period.
Modi announced an easier regime for business and medical visas and promised to lower India’s trade surplus. India and Pakistan have been trying for years to strike a deal to share energy across their heavily militarised border in Punjab. The two nations’ leaders shook and held each others’ hand for nearly 30 seconds. They also smiled and exchanged pleasantries. While speculations were rife that the thaw between the twosides had melted after a brief interaction at Dhulikhel - the site of retreat, the real thing came in front of the cameras that went live across the region.
Kathmandu’s City Hall broke into a loud applause as the leaders of Pakistan and India warmly shook hands, putting an end to the stiff statements by their respective foreign offices, who saw no “structured” or “formal” meeting between the two. Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi told media in Kathmandu, “It was a spontaneous reaching out and shaking of hands.” He said there was a great expectation from SAARC and the event concluded on a “happy note”. “We go back from SAARC very satisfied,” he said. When asked would this handshake make any difference to SAARC, Fatemi said SAARC members desire that Pakistan and India’s bilateral relations become good so as to strengthen the regional grouping.
Prime Minister Nawaz had meetings with all other leaders except Modi, as Pakistan believes that the onus of a formal dialogue lies with India, he said, adding, “There was no formal meeting”. South Asian leaders were expected to pile pressure on Pakistan on Thursday to salvage the summit by agreeing to electricity sharing and the free movement of vehicles across borders, measures aimed at boosting trade among nearly a quarter of the world’s people. Hopes of progress at the SAARC meeting in Kathmandu now hinge on a morning retreat outside the mountain city, where leaders were to make their case to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif “It is likely that this matter will come up in the retreat,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said, adding that several states were pushing hard for an agreement.
Bangladesh also confirmed a final push to convince Pakistan in time for the summit’s closing declaration later in the day. An official in the Nepali delegation who was privy to the discussions said the focus was now on winning support for the electricity pact, which aims to create a seamless power grid across South Asia, one of the world’s least integrated regions. Pakistani officials did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk