KATHMANDU: South Asian leaders, including from India and Pakistan, discussed trade and energy cooperation and regional peace on Wednesday, but did not reach a consensus on expected transportation and energy agreements.

Hopes for a meeting bet­ween the leaders of India and Pakistan also appeared to fade. Many had expected that Prime Minister Nawaz Sha­rif and his Indian counter­part Narendra Modi might meet on the sidelines of the two-day summit to defuse some of the tensions between their nuclear-armed nations.

Although the two leaders have been under one roof at Saarc summit and in the same hotel, Prime Minister Sharif’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz dismissed chances of any “structured meeting” between the two.

Talking to reporters, he said the two leaders would again be in one room on Thursday. He, however, cate­gorically dismissed chances of any formal meeting.

The Saarc leaders fly to a mountain resort on Thursday for several hours of unstruc­tured discussions. The South Asian Association for Regio­nal Cooperation (Saarc) summit, the first since 2011, is meant as a forum to discuss regional issues, but is usually dominated by the rivalry between Pakistan and India.

Hopes fade for a Sharif-Modi meeting at Saarc summit

“My vision for our region is a dispute-free South Asia where instead of fighting with each other, we jointly fight poverty, illiteracy, dise­ase, malnourishment and unemployment,” Prime Mini­ster Sharif said at the summit.

Leaders from Afghanis­tan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were expected to sign agreements on the sharing of railways, highways and energy. But they failed to achieve a consensus on Wednesday, and unless one is achieved during the retreat on Thursday, the summit could end without any agreements signed.

Prime Minister Sharif said: “We should build on convergences, minimise div­ergences and, most of all, seek to augment complemen­tarities for the greater good of the people of this region.”

He stressed that the gap between the promise of Saarc and reality of its accomplishment needed to be bridged. He called for investing on youth to unleash their creativity, talent and enterprise and for strengthening mutual bonds of trust to solve problems. The economic development of South Asia is closely linked to the availability of energy at an affordable price.

“We should build on our inherent strengths and effectively address common issues such as socio-eco­nomic dispari­ties, poverty alleviation, women empo­werment, health and education.”

But this needed close coordination at national and regional levels, he said, adding that while pursuing Saarc’s socio-economic agenda there was a need to pay special attention to rural development, expansion of agricultural resource base, development of action plans to combat communicable diseases, greater collabora­tion in the health sector, elimination of illiteracy, scientific and technological capacity-building and deve­lopment of information and communication techno­logies. The prime minister said abundant alternative energy resources were available in the region, but there was a need to collec­tively focus on harnessing indigenous energy produc­tion potential. He proposed arrangements for trans-reg­ional oil and gas pipelines.

“My government is acti­vely pursuing this initiative which has the potential to integrate South Asia, China and Central Asia, the three engines of growth in Asia. A soft visa regime would greatly facilitate the realisation of these objectives,” Mr Sharif said.

Having hosted the 4th and 12th Saarc summits, he said, Pakistan would be pleased to offer itself to host its 19th summit in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, November 27th , 2014