M A I N   N E W S

India, Pak firm on gas pipeline
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 4
India and Pakistan today decided to pursue the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project for its successful completion — a development of huge political and diplomatic significance which is bound to have a negative fallout on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

This was decided at a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz on the margins of the 14th Saarc summit. The two Prime Ministers devoted much of their time in their 50-minute talks on the Iran pipeline.

Singh and Aziz decided to go ahead with the project and felt that the price mechanism, which has been a major concern for India particularly, could be sorted out. The two Prime Ministers also expressed satisfaction over the progress so far made in the technical-level talks among the three sides.

The two neighbours’ decision to go ahead with the Iran pipeline is the second rebuff to the Americans in as many days, after the 14th Saarc summit approved an Iranian application for observer status in the regional grouping. The decision would help Iran to come out of its isolation ward, which the West did not want to happen.

The development has implications for the UPA government too as the Left Front has consistently been pressuring the government for going ahead with the Iran pipeline. It also means that India is ready to pursue its independent foreign policy in the larger national interest rather than being dictated by such overwhelming considerations as a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the US. The Indo-US nuclear deal would receive a severe setback with this decision.

The other important issue that came up during the Singh-Aziz meeting was the Samjhauta Express link train blasts. Aziz wanted to know what was happening in the investigations. He again suggested joint investigation into the train blasts. Singh, however, politely turned down the joint investigation request and assured him that India would share investigation results with Pakistan.

Aziz also raised the issue of 570 Pakistani prisoners who are lodged in Indian jails currently. He wanted their cases to be expedited. Singh assured that a case-by-case review would be undertaken. Many of these 570 prisoners are accused of serious charges like terrorism.

Aziz congratulated the Indian Prime Minister for hosting the Saarc summit and said it marked an important milestone in the Saarc process for regional cooperation.

Saarc nations vow to curb terror funding
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 4
India won a major battle in its war against terrorism when as the host country of the 14th Saarc Summit today it succeeded in bringing the other seven South Asian neighbours on board to condemned terrorism “in all its forms and manifestation, wherever and against whomsoever committed.”

The eight-nation regional grouping, in a Declaration at the end of its two-day summit, today also called for urgent conclusion of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism - an initiative with which India is closely associated.

Key insiders say that the strong language in the Saarc Declaration shows that Pakistan, which has traditionally been on the other side of the fence in Saarc, has lent its cooperation on the issue like never before.

The Saarc leaders underlined that terrorism was a threat to peace and security in the region. They reaffirmed their commitment to implement all international conventions relating to combating terrorism as well as the Saarc Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and the Additional Protocol to the Saarc Regional Convention dealing with the prevention and suppression of financing of terrorism.

The Saarc leaders agreed to work on the modalities to implement the provisions of the existing Saarc Conventions to combat terrorism, narcotics and psychotropic substances, trafficking in women and children and other trans-national crimes. They expressed their commitment to take every possible measure to prevent and suppress financing of terrorist acts by criminalising the provision, acquisition and collection of funds for such acts, including through front organisations and also to counter illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs, trafficking in persons and illicit arms.

They noted the initiative of India to prepare a draft of Saarc Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. They welcomed the offer of Sri Lanka to hold a meeting of legal advisers to examine the idea of a draft convention, before the second meeting of Saarc Interior/Home Ministers scheduled to be held in October 2007 in India.

On developmental issues, the Saarc leaders gave a call to set up a South Asian Economic Union and a South Asian Customs Union to accelerate economic development in the region, which houses one fifth of the world’s seven billion people.

In his closing remarks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is the current Saarc chairman, said he had witnessed a new sense of purpose in the two days of deliberations.

The Declaration stressed the need to ensure effective market access through smooth implementation of trade liberalisation programme and said that the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) “should be implemented in letter and spirit” It also called for integration of services in Safta.

Among other major decisions taken at the 14th Saarc summit: Set up a South Asian university in India, set up a food bank to supplement national efforts towards food security and meet regional food emergencies, and to set up a Saarc village in each member state, and work towards greater connectivity of all kinds within South Asia.