Staff Reporter :
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam on Tuesday urged the South Asian leaders to rise above politics in promoting cooperation among the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) members and to recast its role considering the changing global realities to make it grouping “people-centric”.
Shahriar Alam told this as the chief guest at a seminar on “SAARC at 30: Achievements, Potentials and Challenges” in the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) reiterating Bangladesh’ firm commitment and political will in driving the SAARC agenda frontward”.
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) arranged the event with its Chairman Munshi Faiz Ahmed in the chair. Tuesday was the 31st SAARC Charter Day. The charter signed on Dec 8 in 1985 has stimulated regional cooperation in South Asia.
He said, the volume of the intra-regional trade is about $28 billion. Still the SAARC is known as the least integrated region of the world.
He said, political mistrust and security concerns, mostly related to Pakistan, prevail strongly.
The State Minister said that after three decades of existence, “The SAARC members now need to efficiently recast its role in the context of changing realities”.
He said that the Asia-Pacific region would be “the gravity” of global economy and trade in the coming days.
“In South Asia, we cannot afford to be left outside the integrated Asian production-and-supply chain”, he said.
He stressed on enhancing regional connectivity and collective efforts to overcome emerging challenges in the global context of “unprecedented changes”.
He said that SAARC’s role must be “more effective and visible”, and for this, he suggested to engage in “result-oriented projects, programmes and activities”.
“We urge all member states to rise above differences and reaffirm adequate political will to make SAARC a people-centric organisation”.
He stressed on translating 30 years’ of acquired knowledge, expertise and institutional mechanism into meaningful benefits for the South Asian people”.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are the member countries of this South Asian grouping.
