BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL & STRATEGIC STUDIES. International Conference on Challenges and Opportunities of 21 st SAARC

Transcription

1 BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL & STRATEGIC STUDIES International Conference on Challenges and Opportunities of 21 st SAARC Century 3 rd and 4 th April 2012 THE ROLE OF SRI LANKA IN PROMOTING REGIONAL COOPERATION IN SOUTH ASIA (Presentation by Ambassador Nihal Rodrigo, former Sri Lanka Foreign Secretary and SG/SAARC) As early as the 1970s, Bangladesh displayed its firm resolve to establish an Association of South Asian States to build on the region s historical, cultural, and economic synergies for the benefit of all its people. A number of factors delayed the establishment of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation until April 1985, compared to the European Union established in 1957, the African Union in 1963, and the Association of South East Asian Nations in Sri Lanka s Dr Gamini Corea, as Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in a meeting with the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, had enquired why India, at the time, had considerable reservations about an association of South Asian nations. She had replied that such a union may become an opportunity for the smaller South Asian states to gang up against India. Dr. Corea s response, which he did not of course then articulate, was that there were apprehensions too, among the smaller states, that India might bang down on them. Other more favourable counsel gathered on the Bangladesh initiative when the Foreign Secretaries of South Asia met in Colombo in April Sri Lanka s Foreign Minister, the late Shahul Hameed enthusiastically welcomed the initiative of President Ershad of Bangladesh. He expressed Sri Lanka s view at the meeting that the goals of development and the structures of development must come from deep within a nation s own needs, hopes and traditions and enable countries to derive strength from each other, whether by enhanced trade, institutional linkages, sharing of technology, improving human resources or investments. There are psychological barriers to be overcome: outmoded concepts to be discarded. A strong region working collectively can hook itself into the global system more effectively than a set of weak states each contesting the same area. Foreign Minister Hameed also significantly acknowledged that the public and private sectors have already begun to cooperate with each other. Other speakers, at this International Conference in Dhaka, particularly the representatives of Bangladesh would cover the essence of the First SAARC Summit Declaration of

2 Over the years, despite various constraints, SAARC has progressed, although much more needs to be achieved to ensure fulfillment of what is the central objective of the Association which is the establishment of the South Asian Economic Union by The Thimphu SAARC Summit in 2010, assessed SAARC s scope and substance of cooperation as having expanding to diverse fields, but frankly equally conceded that a number of these had not translated into meaningful tangible benefits for the People. The Summit resolved to make SAARC truly action oriented by fulfilling commitments, implementing Declarations and decisions and operationalising its instruments. Accordingly the South Asia Forum was set up to engage eminent persons of diverse backgrounds to act on public private partnership lines charting the future course of SAARC. The Forum met in New Delhi in 2010, co sponsored by the Indian Government, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the SAARC Secretariat. All SAARC delegations were led at Ministerial level and included senior members of the corporate sectors, economic research institutes, think tanks, the media, and civil society including women s groups. I was privileged to participate as a former SG/SAARC and Foreign Secretary. What is important is that the South Asia Forum (SAF), with its wide range of participants, now operates as a working arm of the official SAARC process rather than a parallel group operating with little impact on Government thinking and action. The SAF encounter was followed by two other meetings that also contributed much to the preparatory process leading to the 17 th SAARC Summit in Addu City, Maldives in November2011. The first was the Consultative Sessions on Strengthening SAARC and its Institutional Mechanisms held in Male in October The inaugural session was addressed by the then President of Maldives. Apart from official Government representatives, participants included the Secretary General of SAARC; 5 former SAARC Secretary Generals; Dr Rodolfo Severino, former Secretary General of ASEAN; Dr. Thomas Roe of the European Union; and representatives of the Asian Development Bank. The achievements, experiences and shortcomings of the EU and ASEAN were discussed and lessons learnt. At the request of the host Government Sri Lanka played a coordinator role. Dr Saman Kelegama, Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) of Sri Lanka chaired a Session and made a critical presentation on the current state of economic activities in SAARC and means of expediting action to declared goals. I was requested to make a presentation and chair a Session on institutional and procedural aspects of SAARC, including the Secretariat, the Regional Centres and other complex mechanisms such as decision making procedures and documentation. The views garnered were included in an Outcome Document presented, through the usual 2

3 procedural ladder up from the Programming Committee on to the Summit at Addu City in the following month. Following the Male Sessions, Sri Lanka also participated at a Roundtable held in Kathmandu organized by the Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS) in association with the Global Partnership for Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) and Sri Lanka s Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. Its general theme was Building Bridges and Promoting People to People Interaction in South Asia which has been useful in SAARC s efforts to reach The People in the region as well as also states beyond the region. The theme of the 15 th SAARC Summit in Colombo, held in 2008, had been Partnerships for the Growth of Our People and its Declaration urged mechanisms in the Association to continue to embody in their programmes and projects, a strong focus on better connectivity not only within South Asia,but also between the region and the rest of the world. The Colombo Declaration stressed the need for fasttracking projects for improving intra regional connectivity as well as facilitating economic, social and people to people contacts. Sri Lanka has had universal adult franchise since Presently, all member states of SAARC are committed to democratic governance. Yet a paradox has arisen, as I indicated in a lecture at the SAARC Cultural Centre in Colombo a few days ago. Given certain conflicting ethnocentric governance issues in members states, particularly under federal systems of governance as in India, divisive bilateral issues fester, affecting SAARC regional action. Central governments are sometimes unable, or unwilling, to control political groups within their own territorial areas from interference in the domestic affairs of neighbouring countries. Such developments do not auger well for SAARC. At a recent Session of the United Nations General assembly, Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh frankly assessed that the growing assertion of separate identities and ethnic, cultural and religious intolerance threaten our development efforts and our cooperation to combat terrorism. Such assertions of separate identities in India are highly politicized domestically and have affected Sri Lanka at Sessions of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in March this year. India supported a US sponsored Resolution on Sri Lankan internal affairs on the officially declared reasoning that concern should be addressed so that the Tamil people in Sri Lanka can get justice and lead a life of dignity. The former Chief Minister of the Indian state of Tamilnadu, M. Karunanidhi was asked by the media in Chennai whether following the adoption of the US resolution, there was now a possibility of a separate state of Tamil Eelam being set up in Sri Lanka. The former Chief Minister had declared: that is the Goal!. The mono ethnic separatist concept of Tamil Eelam pursued through bloody terrorism by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, did not even have majority support among the Tamil community the LTTE 3

4 claimed to represent. Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed by the LTTE, as was Sri Lankan Prime Minister R. Premadasa. The press clinically described India s support of the US resolution as based on coalition compulsions. However, even a former Indian Foreign Secretary questioned: While democracies have to be sensitive to public opinion, should (India s) foreign policy be held hostage to coalition politics? Should individual states be allowed to dictate to the Centre foreign policy decisions whose implications go beyond immediate domestic political equations?. India has opposed country specific resolutions given its own social and human rights vulnerability. Speculation is also rife that the Indian action in Geneva was, apart from domestic coalition compulsions, to promote India as a faithful ally of the US. It is conceded of course that India amended the resolution to sanitize it as less an interference in Sri Lanka s internal affairs. The Final Declaration eventually adopted by Heads of State/Government at the SAARC Summit in Addu City on was the shortest on record, perhaps heeding recommendations made at deliberations at the preceding Sessions in Male in October 2011 as well sarcasm about verbosity in SAARC documentation. Comment, from a Sri Lankan perspective, on the major decisions taken at the Addu Summit are as follows: First, the South Asia Forum, as an acknowledged working mechanism of SAARC is given a formal mandate to work on a Vision Statement for South Asia s future development including action towards the South Asian Economic Union. The SAFTA Ministerial Council has been directed to intensify efforts to fully and effectively implement SAFTA and work on reduction of sensitive lists and non tariff barriers and harmonizing standards and customs procedures. Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh conceded at Addu that India has a special responsibility that flows from the geography of our region and the size of (India s) economy and market. A Notification was announced accordingly which reduced the items on India s sensitive list for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) under SAFTA from 480 tariff lines to a mere 25. Zero customs duty access was available for the items thus off the sensitive list. Pakistan switched over to a negative list regime for India, granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India. In consequence, India could export about 6,800 items to Pakistan as against the former 1,950 or so. Indian External Affairs Minister Krishna welcomed the decision as bringing economic content to political relations. During Sri Lanka s term as Secretary General of SAARC, bilateral relations (the K.K.K. issues : Kashmir, Kandhahar and Kabul)were delaying the 11 th Summit scheduled for Kathmandu. It was Mr. Krishna, then Chief Minister of Karnataka, who agreed to host a South Asian Business Leaders Summit in Bangalore to keep the economic aspects of 4

5 SAARC moving. Thereafter, sessions of South Asian Economic Summits take place preceding Summits providing corporate inputs. Second, practical connectivity has been enhanced in the financial, resources and service sectors. Finance Ministers have been called upon to chart proposals to allow greater financial capital flows for long term regional investment. In the transport sector; early conclusion of the Regional Railways Agreement and a demonstration run of a container train linking Bangladesh,India and Nepal has been called for though practical obstacles remain. The Sri Lank India Ferry Service, currently halted, is to be resumed and the SG/SAARC has been directed to complete work for a more extensive Indian Ocean Cargo and Passenger Ferry Service. Tourism and aviation services are developing well. Sri Lankan Airlines has more landing rights in India than any other airline. The SAARC region, collectively, will be soon promoted globally as Destination South Asia. The 12 th SAARC Trade Fair will be held in conjunction with the Travel and Tourism Fair in Maldives. Third, a Framework Energy Cooperation Agreement is envisaged despite obstacles it faces. This would include harnessing more hydro power. Bhutan exports electricity to India. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for institutional and co riparian cooperation of the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins to facilitate integrated development of water resources to nourish agriculture and provide access to safe water to benefit a billion people. Fourth, the Addu Declaration gives emphasis to the plurality of cultures and diversities within the region emphasizing need to promote inter cultural harmony through greater contact and interaction between peoples including mutual recognition of academic and university degrees and harmonizing academic standards to enhance understanding particularly among the youth. Fifth, apart from the issue of the resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHCR, the SAARC Conference of Ministers of Parliamentary Affairs had called for greater devolution of power at grass roots levels to ensure participation of people in decision making and even implementation. Where this is failing, public protests and demonstrations with mass participation ensue, sometimes of a violent disruptive, even destructive character. Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that what is evident now is a mood of urgency, even impatience. because a large and influential part of our societies consist of young people, inspired by new ideas, looking forward with enthusiasm to a promising future. They cannot wait long. Patience is not infinite. Nepali Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai at the Summit said the increasing gap between rich and poor has given way to enormous stress on social harmony peace and security in the region. The challenge demands that poverty alleviation strategies be comprehensive, and socioeconomic processes more people centred and justice based. 5

6 Sixth, the draft Declaration initially presented by Maldives for adoption had references to establishment of human rights mechanisms for South Asia. However, the Declaration finally adopted had a generic reference to peace, confidence building, liberty, human dignity, democracy, mutual respect, good governance and, human rights. However, in practical terms, an intergovernmental Expert Group has been directed to focus on fundamental rights by women and girls as an inalienable part of universal human rights. Given much abuse of women s dignity, the Declaration calls for finalizing a regional convention against Trafficking of Women and Children for Prostitution for adoption at the next Summit in Nepal. Seventh, SAARC s global perspectives need to be better developed. All nations in the world, developed or developing, commonly face emergencies and exigencies impacting on their Economies, Environments, Energy shortages, Emigration aspects and Extremist activities. An Agreement on Rapid Responses to Natural Disasters was signed in Addu. Many of the natural and other emergencies have been caused by cumulative effects individual greed, excessive exploitation of the environments and corporate laxity in the so called free world of uncontrolled capitalism by corporate czars like Madoff in the United States who made off with millions, and others like Sri Lanka s Raj Rajaratnam. The Bhutan Prime Minister Jigmy Thinley spoke at the Summit of the planet employing our genius and technology to extract more, and faster; sell, and consume more; waste and pollute more; all in our singular aim for material gain and in pursuit of mistaken symbols of success. Eighth, the economic and security connectivity of SAARC needs to extend beyond South Asia. The success of ASEAN was helped by the + 3 strategy of cooperation with China, Japan and the republic of Korea. All three have Observer status in SAARC, in addition to Australia, Iran, Mauritius, Myanmar, the European Union and the United States, but the extent of their cooperation is not extensive. SAARC has had Conferences and Seminars with China, Japan, and the European Union to identify areas of cooperation for mutual benefit. More needs to be done. The Addu Declaration calls for a comprehensive review of all matters relating to SAARC s engagement with observers before the SAARC Council of Ministers next meets. China has already contributed to the SAARC Development Fund. Sri Lanka s Prime Minister, D.M.Jayarathna was Chief Guest at the 6 th China South Asia Business Forum, sponsored by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), in Kunming in June He stated that China and South Asia could bring visible change in the Asian economy through mutual trust and cross border trade which had, for example, increased from $ 25 billion in 2005 to $ 80 billion in Ninth, South Asian states are located in the Indian Ocean Region, including the land locked states. The Indian Ocean is the most traversed of sea routes in the world for economic, human, 6

7 security and other connectivity. There is also the sinister criminal connectivity of international underworld cartels posing major non traditional security threats to the region and beyond as well. Sri Lanka s southern port of Hambantota, is located a few miles off the main sea routes linking East Asia, South Asia, West Asia and thence beyond to Europe. Non traditional security threats are posed by criminal cartels involved in people smuggling, drug trafficking, gunrunning, credit card frauds and cyber crime. The commercially inclined rump residue of the LTTE cooperates closely with these globalised networks as well as with Somali piracy gangs. Indian, Maldivian and Sri Lankan fishing communities are often victims. The Addu Declaration calls for coordinated and concerted efforts to combat terrorism and SAARC action for the early conclusion of the SAARC Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters as well as the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, the Committee on which is chaired by Sri Lanka diplomat, Dr Rohan Perera. In addition, US security concerns are now being increasingly focused, after the muddled Middle East encounters, in the Indo Pacific region. Sri Lanka has engaged with US defence analysts on the issues involved. Conferences with participation of navies involved in the IOR have been held. The Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) in Sri Lanka organized a useful exchange of views on the future of the US as an Indo Pacific maritime power in which former defence personnel were also involved with US academics. SAARC would benefit from a Conclave on the lines of the Davos, Boao, Shangri la encounters. Finally, SAARC mechanisms, inclusive of the Secretariat, the Regional Centres, procedural action, budgetary matters, staff issues and documentation are to be reviewed and strengthened in keeping with recommendations made at the Consultative Sessions held in Male prior to the Addu Summit.. 7