News analysis: SAARC undergoing growing pains

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-01 11:19

Colombo -- The 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit, which will kick off in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Saturday, attracts more attention as well as criticism.

The leaders of SAARC countries meet annually with fanfare regardless of the accusation that the organization is less effective compared with other regional entities like European Union (EU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

With a theme called "Partnership for our people," the 15th summit will focus on terrorism, food security, energy and other issues.

The SAARC was established when its charter was formally adopted on December 8, 1985 by the heads of state or government of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The SAARC summit remains a meeting among member countries until 2007 when five observers including China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States of America and the European Union were invited to attend the 14th summit in New Delhi, India.

Afghanistan joined the SAARC at the 14th summit held in New Delhi in April 2007. Iran was granted the status of observer for the organization at the 14th summit. Australia and Myanmar are likely to become SAARC observers at the coming 15th summit.

A Turkish reporter called Turkmen Terzi working with Cihan News Agency told Xinhua at the media center for the 15th SAARC Summit that people in Turkey were keeping a close eye on the SAARC summit because they wanted to know what was going on in this region.

"We procure goods from China and sell them on European markets, " Terzi said, "South Asia is very important geologically because our goods are transferred through it."

Some other countries are interested in the summit because they have their own interest in the region, Terzi said, adding that the influence of SAARC had been increasing.

However, analysts pointed out that numerous agreements and contracts had been signed at SAARC Summits but they remained on paper afterwards.

The mammoth budget for the 15th Summit draws fire among people in Sri Lanka. Complaining of the inflation and high oil prices, many people think the summit is just a waste of money with little hope of achieving substantial results.

The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) is an important initiative taken at the 12th SAARC summit in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan on January 6, 2004. The SAARC countries signed a framework SAFTA agreement with zero customs duty on the trade of practically all products in the region by the end of 2016.

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