Indian stubbornness could lead to SAARC dissolution

An interview with Maldivian Ambassador to Pakistan Ahmed Saleem

The country has opposed Pakistan’s nominee for secretary general SAARC1

Amid Indian bid to block the nomination of Ambassador Amjad Sial as the next secretary-general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Maldivian Ambassador Ahmed Saleem has warned that such dillydallying tactics could lead towards “dissolution” of the SAARC itself.

In an interview with Pakistan Today, Ambassador Ahmed Saleem has called upon India and Pakistan to table all their bilateral issues at the SAARC as their neighbours could also help resolve their outstanding issues. “Whether it is Kashmir or terrorism – the member states can use SAARC forum to discuss and resolve their bilateral issues. They can also engage on the sidelines of SAARC too. But harming the SAARC would be unwise as SAARC is the best thing happening to this region. This is not about India or Pakistan, SAARC is about the future of 1.6 billion people of the region and no one should hurt the regional cooperation forum,” says the envoy.

Amjad Hussain Sial, a career diplomat, has been nominated by Pakistan as the 13^th Secretary General of SAARC to replace the outgoing top official of Nepal, Arjun Bahadur Thapa, whose term expires on Feb 28. Documents available with Pakistan Today reflect that Mr Sial’s nomination was made at the SAARC Council of Ministers in Pokhara (Nepal) in March 2016 and was endorsed by all member states. Receipt of concurrence to Mr Sial’s appointment from all eight member states was notified by the SAARC Secretariat on Sept 8, 2016.

Despite the fact that India itself had endorsed Mr Sial’s choice through a formal concurrence sent to Islamabad, now New Delhi is trying to set a new precedence to SAARC’s history. A copy of an Indian diplomatic note dated May 30, 2016, conveys its concurrence to Mr Sial’s appointment as secretary general. However, India sent a diplomatic memo to SAARC secretariat last month and asked the secretariat to adhere to the “due working procedures” in the appointment of Mr Thapa’s successor.

New Delhi has referred to Article V of the MoU on the establishment of the SAARC secretariat, which details the procedure for the appointment of the secretary general and under which the appointment has to be approved by the SAARC Council of Ministers comprising foreign ministers of the member states.

India claims that the nomination had to be ratified by the Council of Ministers meeting in Islamabad, which could not be held due to postponement of the summit after India and some of its regional allies pulled out of the meeting.

Ambassador Ahmed Saleem, who himself has served as secretary general SAARC before Mr Thapa, says that appointment of Ambassador Sial was a “done deal”.

“I am not aware of any attempt by any member country to block Amjad Sial’s nomination as secretary general SAARC. It’s a done deal. It all has been decided by the standing committees, by Council of Ministers. They’ve given their own concurrence, they’ve approved Amjad Sial,” he says. “The other thing is this is Pakistan’s turn. This is a SAARC tradition that every three years, secretary general changes according to the alphabetical order. So, whoever is nominated by Pakistan was to be automatically approved by all member states and that has been done. It’s a matter that has been decided according to SAARC traditions for the past 32 years,” insists Ambassador Saleem.

The senior diplomat says he would like to believe that no country will try to block the nomination by a member state and that is not in the interest of any country. “It is good for SAARC, as it has been going on for so many years and it will create a very dangerous precedent that might even lead to dissolution of SAARC itself,” warned the envoy. He said that it was not in the interest of any country or even the region to harm the SAARC.

“I don’t think anybody would try to do that. I don’t like to think that. I do understand there are some sensitivities involved. There are problems, and that is one of the reasons why SAARC hasn’t taken off. This is a region of 1.6 billion people, one of the largest regions in the world. There is so much we can do together but we’ve not been able to achieve much mainly because of India and Pakistan,” he added.

Ambassador Ahmed said bilateral issues between India and Pakistan needed to be resolved by them. “SAARC is not involved. So SAARC should not be asked to be a victim. There are six other countries involved. It is not fair. It is not fair for all the 1.6 billion involved,” he insisted. “We have so much poverty here and so much that we can achieve. Like I said before, there is nothing we can’t achieve. There are age-old problems between India and Pakistan, like Kashmir. There is also the terrorism problem, common to all of us. It’s not confined to India and Pakistan. It’s a common SAARC problem. So why can’t we meet and discuss it in SAARC?” he argued.

“I think not having summits, not having SAARC meetings is not the solution. We have an organization; we should all be willing to meet and discuss these issues because nobody else is going to come to SAARC to solve these problems. We ourselves have to do it,” concluded the Maldivian envoy.