16th SAARC Summit held in Thimpu

On 28-29 April 2010, 16th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit was held in Thimpu, capital of Bhutan. All the 8 member nations including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan participated in the summit. The theme of the summit was Climate Change. The joint declaration of SAARC summit was towards a green and happy South Asia.
Two agreements were signed by the members of SAARC.
•    First agreement was on environment.
•    Second agreement was on trade in services.
Agreements
•    The agreement on environment aimed at forming a united stand by the SAARC nations on the issue of climate change before the United Nations Climate Change conference starts in Cancun, Mexico in December 2010. The agreement stated that any global agreement on climate change should be based upon The UN Frame work convention and Bali action plan.
•    Agreement on trade in services aimed at making SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement) more advantageous. Until now, SAFTA included trade in goods only and not the trade in services. The contribution of services sector to the GDPs of all the SAARC nations increased manifolds recently and the importance of service sector could not be denied.

Decisions
•    SAARC decided to establish an Inter-governmental Expert group on Climate Change to develop a clear policy direction and guidance for regional cooperation as envisaged in the SAARC Plan of Action on Climate Change.
•    South Asian Development Fund became functional with the capital of 300 million dollars in which India is the biggest contributor with 189 million dollars. The decision to set up the fund was taken in 2007.

Important Information

•    It was the first time SAARC summit was held in Bhutan.
•    1st SAARC summit was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in December 1985. Bangladesh President Zia-ur-Rehman had proposed the idea.
•    The 17th SAARC Summit will be held in Male, capital of Maldives in 2011.
•    The 15th SAARC summit was held in Sri Lankan capital Colombo in August 2008.
•    The agreement on SAFTA was signed on 6 January 2004 at the 12th SAARC summit in Islamabad.
•    SAFTA’s objective is to increase and promote trade and economic cooperation among the member nations of SAARC.  Under SAFTA, all SAARC nations give trade concessions to each other in form of levying less or not at all the import duty on goods.
•    Prior to SAFTA, SAARC Preferential Trade Arrangement (SAPTA) was in place.
•    SAARC completed 25 years of its existence.
•    The population of SAARC is 1.5 billion which is one-fourth of the world population.
•    The agreement on disaster management could not be finalised due to lack of complete unanimity on the subject.
•    Dr. Sheel Kant Sharma from India is the Secretary General of SAARC at present.
•    Afghanistan became the member of SAARC in the 14th summit held in New Delhi, India in April 2007. India played a major role in adding Afghanistan to SAARC grouping.
SAARC nations need to speak in one voice at world forums and to work more collaboratively in economic sector. At present when the world is divided among several trading and political blocks a nation alone will find it hard to maintain its economic development and to exert political influence at international forums.
SARRC region is one of the most backward one in the world economically with political differences among its member nations. Therefore, SAARC summit can help all its member nations resolve their political differences and achieve economic development.