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SAARC council of ministers gives economics priority over security

The council of ministers at the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation forum in Colombo backed India's stand that the association should not get bogged down in contentious issues and, instead, get on with the economic agenda.

Pakistan tried to get the SAARC forum to discuss security concerns, with particular emphasis on the nuclear issue. But other member countries stuck to the position that South Asia's economic concerns should get priority.

The Pakistan delegation wanted to raise the subject through the questions of peace and stability in the region, but India opposed it, maintaining that economic issues were of paramount importance to the region.

Pakistan raised the issue at the standing committee of foreign secretaries, holding up finalisation of its report to the council of ministers and delaying the start of the two-day meeting of SAARC council of ministers.

Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar confirmed that serious differences had arisen between India and Pakistan, the two bigger nations in the SAARC. But, he told journalists, the delegations from Sri Lanka and other member countries had fought to ensure the nuclear issue did not deflect the tenth SAARC summit from its main issue -- facing economic problems.

He said Pakistan wanted the nuclear issue to be mentioned in the Colombo declaration under the nuclear disarmament subject that has conventionally figured in the SAARC declarations.

Kadirgamar said the draft Colombo declaration, as it stood now, had no section on disarmament.

The differences between the two nations had allegedly also surfaced during Monday night's meeting between their foreign secretaries, the first high-level contact between them since the atomic tests in May.

But Indian High Commissioner to Colombo Shivshankar Menon, who briefed Indian journalists, merely said that India's Foreign Secretary K Raghunath and his Pakistani counterpart, Shamsad Ahmed, had agreed on the date for the meeting of their prime ministers.

He said Prime Ministers A B Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharief would meet on Wednesday evening. He declined to say where, only saying that hosts Sri Lankans were arranging it.

A senior Pakistani official told journalists that there would be two bilateral meetings, one between the delegations of the two countries and the other between the prime ministers.

Referring to the talks between the foreign secretaries, he termed ''rigid'' India's stand on the talks with Pakistan. Unless New Delhi was serious about the talks and seriously addressing issues, any breakthrough would be difficult, he said.

He reiterated Pakistan's stand that there should be a separate working group on Kashmir, since peace in the South Asian region depended on a solution to the dispute. India, on the other hand, seeks a composite approach to all outstanding problems.

UNI

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