'There Was A Consensus On The Dates Of The Summit...'

Navtej Sarna: As you know India and the United States had established a bilateral global issues forum in February 2002 andis chaired by the Foreign Secretary Mr. Sibal on our side and on US side by the Under Secretary of State forGlobal Affairs Ms. Paula Dobriansky.

They had last met in October 2002 and then in February 2003. Under the aegis of this forum the meeting hasbeen held from 7-11th July in Delhi. This time the leaders of the delegation have been the US AssistantSecretary of State for Oceans, International Environmental Scientific Affairs John Turner and on the Indianside it is led by Ms. Deepa Wadhwa, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

The details of the meetings and the decisions arrived at are all available in the Joint Statement. Let mehighlight the fact that the two governments have decided to support efforts to enhance science and technologycooperation.

To this end, they agreed to discuss a new umbrella India-US Science and Technology Agreement. There areseveral other issues dealing with environment, energy, health that has been discussed and cooperation areasagreed upon.

On the SAARC Meeting in Kathmandu, were there any details whether there is going to be any progress oneconomic cooperation?

You would have seen the Foreign Secretary’s detailed briefing in Kathmandu yesterday and we had alsogiven out a short brief at the end of the day yesterday. What I can say is that a large number of decisionshave been taken by the Standing Committee. We are happy at the consensus in the Standing Committee on theentire package of issues including the dates for the next summit.

The Standing Committee has also stressed the urgent need for finalising the draft framework treaty oncreating a free trade area that is SAFTA, before the next summit. It has also directed that there should besubstantial progress to report to the summit on other parallel trade facilitation measures including theproposed regional agreement on promotion and protection of investments, avoidance of double taxation, tradearbitration council, customs cooperation and harmonisation of standards and measurements.

These are all trade facilitation measures aimed to operationalise SAFTA. The committee has also agreed asfar as SAPTA is concerned to recommend the launching of the fifth round of trade negotiations under SAPTA.There was also an agreement to hold a succession of meetings of committee of experts to make sure that both onthe SAFTA framework and trade facilitation measures and concrete progress is made before the next summit.

We hope that this entire package will be fully implemented before the next summit so as to make itmeaningful. India looks forward to progress in all these issues before the SAARC Summit as decided in theStanding Committee and also to participating in the summit.

Do you see any change in Pakistan’s attitude?

Again I would refer you to Foreign Secretary’s briefing in which he has answered several issues. Therehas been a consensus in the Standing Committee on promotion of trade and economic cooperation before theSummit. Naturally for the consensus to have been arrived at all the countries that were present had to agreewith it.

Now we would believe that the spirit is maintained and there should be progress on economic issues. I agreewith you on the point you are making that Pakistan’s lack of commitment on economic cooperation has beenresponsible for delay in these matters.

So it is not only for India but for all SAARC countries, a concern and a desire that all the countries ofSAARC including Pakistan should move to make trade and economic cooperation a concrete reality in the next fewmonths.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner while presenting his credentials has once again stressed on having atreaty for resumption air link and overflights. Any comments?

I have only seen news reports to this effect. I am not going to react to this. I can tell you that we hadsought clarifications on civil aviation links. We were told that these clarifications could be discussedduring the technical level meetings. We had then invited dates for the technical level meetings. We are stillawaiting word on that. As far as other aspect which you mentioned, we still do not have any official word onthat.

You have said that there is consensus in the Standing Committee meeting….

Let’s be very clear. The SAARC Standing Committee has arrived at a consensus on a package on a number ofissues. One of the issues is the dates of summit and the other issues are on measures to make meaningfulprogress in trade and economic cooperation which I have detailed to you.

Progress on trade treaties will it be a prerequisite condition for Prime minister to go Islamabad?

I think the decisions of the SAARC Standing Committee speak for themselves. It is naturally a concern thatfor Heads of Governments / States to meet must have before them a substantive economic agenda and goodprogress before the summit.

Does that mean Prime Minister is going to Pakistan for the summit?

I have just told you there was a consensus on the dates of the summit and India is happy to be a part ofthe consensus and a consensus could not have arrived as Foreign Secretary said if India had not been part ofit.

On SAFTA….

I can only refer you to Foreign Secretary’s briefing. The fact is that the entire Standing Committee hasarrived at certain decisions. Specifically an answer to your question, as far as SAFTA is concerned there isgoing to be a meeting in September. We hope this meeting will take place on schedule.

As you recall some meetings earlier had not been taken place. Between September and January there issufficient time for another meeting to take place if necessary. The same body of experts which is going to betalking about SAFTA is going to talk about the trade facilitation measures to operationalise SAFTA.

Naturally there would be encouragement for these meetings to take place so that work can be done. As far asSAPTA is concerned there is movement because the Standing Committee has given the mandate for the fifthmeeting of the SAPTA. As you know the summit mandate had only four meetings. Now the fifth meeting has beencalled for and we hope that this meeting will take place and a real, meaningful, credible and visible progresswill be made in these meetings.

Will this expert meeting take place in Kathmandu?

I don’t have the venues of this meeting. I can get that for you. There are three Ministerial levelmeetings that India has announced to host in the last quarter of 2003. These are on science and technology,health and information and broadcasting.

On SAPTA...

The committee has agreed to recommend the launching of the fifth round of trade negotiations under SAPTA.When you are talking of SAPTA you are talking of tariff concessions and tariff lines. A meaningful progressneeds to be made here. As you know out of the 5000 tariff lines which are being made available India isresponsible for making available more than half. We have really done a lot for making that a reality.

Pakistani trade delegation called on Prime Minister and stressed the need for resumption of air linkbetween India and Pakistan. The fact that Pakistanis are stressing for resumption of air links…

I wouldn’t like to draw any conclusions. The conclusions are yours. Certainly we have taken theinitiatives as part of the follow up of Prime Minister’s peace initiative to propose the resumption of civilaviation links and when we had sought a clarification on overflights we were told that this would be discussedat a technical level. Then we have invited a technical level team from Pakistan to discuss these issues. Sofar we haven’t heard from them.

When was this invitation sent?

It was on 24th June.

Suppose in September there is no progress on SAFTA will PM attend summit meeting?

I wouldn’t like to be a part of such pessimism. We have just had a consensus, we have expressed ourhappiness and satisfaction at the consensus. Let’s leave it at that.

Do you expect bilateral summit meeting during SAARC summit?

I have just given you our agreement on the consensus on the dates for the SAARC Summit. Let’s leave it atthat.