ISLAMABAD, May 12: An international conference on ‘The United Nations and South Asia’ will be held in Japan later this month to explore the potential for improvement in domestic and international efforts at alleviating the pressing problems of South Asia.

The two-day conference that will open in Tokyo on May 27 is organised by the United Nations University in collaboration with the UN agencies and South Asian embassies in Japan. It will bring together leading policymakers, practitioners, analysts and international scholars to focus on the issues faced by the region.

The conference coincides with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.

The areas to be covered broadly at the forum are South Asia and the UN, peace and security, international terrorism and social and economic advancement. Poverty alleviation, the role of foreign aid and international trade in South Asian development, and the link between development and environmental degradation are central themes of the conference.

The UN Charter stipulates maintaining international peace and security and promoting social and economic advancement as two of the core purposes of the organisation. In both areas South Asia presents defining challenges to the UN as the global arena for problem-solving.

The organisers of the conference maintain: “An immediate concern to the international community represented by the UN is South Asia’s effect on international peace and security. Given that there are two nuclear powers engaged in dispute over territory, several high-intensity intra-state conflicts, and terrorism has been a major security threat in the region for decades.” Hence, the conference will put special emphasis on the relationship between India and Pakistan, the nuclearisation of that particular conflict, and effects of the war in Afghanistan on South Asia.

Pakistan’s former foreign minister and finance minister Sartaj Aziz will be one of the two keynote speakers, the other one being former Indian Prime Minister I.K Gujral. The other two participants from Pakistan include Dr Hafiz Pasha, who will speak on poverty alleviation, and Nasim Zehra, who will make a presentation on insurgency and terrorism.