Will home ministers turn productive in Thimphu?
In its history of 29 years, the interior ministers of the SAARC nations – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – will congregate in the Bhutanese capital on Thursday to Saturday to discuss issues pertaining to regional security and migration. Nepal’s home minister, who is also the country’s deputy prime minister, Krishna Bahadur Mahara will not attend the conference due to possible change in political scenario there.
Thursday will just see arrival and hi hello among the delegates, brief discussion on issues related to migration and a hi-fi dinner in the evening. On Friday, the home secretaries from the member states will deliberate on future plans and progress on implementation of the past agreements. The 2010 conference had discussed proposals like maritime security and anti-piracy operations under the SAARC charter.
The security conferences are aimed at fostering greater ties among SAARC nations and strengthening police cooperation and other means to ‘combat terrorism’ afflicting the region. Pakistan chairs the session and will be handed over to Bhutan thereafter.
The 13th SAARC Summit, held in Dhaka in November 2005, had decided that the SAARC Interior Ministers should meet annually, preceded by a meeting of the Home Secretaries to strengthen cooperation on relevant fields.
Accordingly, the first meeting was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh while second meeting was held in New Delhi. The third was held in Islamabad from June 23-26, last year.
The importance of home ministers’ gathering was realised with the increased cases of violence in the region in the last one decade. However, owning to the fact about lack of cooperation, willingness and capacity to implement the decision made during the conferences, the home ministers’ conference in Thimphu is likely to turn into a futile gathering exchanging greetings.
The effectiveness of implementing SAARC decisions solely bases on how India maintains its relations with neighbouring countries. India’s relation with other SAARC member nations is growing bad to worst. While India wants to dictate all member states, others seek all alternatives to counter it. India’s efforts to find alternative of SAARC in BIMSTEC reflects this. The friendlier is the situation; the more effective would be the regional cooperation.
General public in the region want governments to be more cooperative, friendlier and control on growing regional insecurity not through suppression but through dialogue where everyone will land in win-win situation.