By KUNA
New Delhi : The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member states Friday agreed to establish a regional security network and finalise a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to fight terror and trans-border crimes in the region.
Foreign Ministers of eight SAARC countries met here today for the 29th session of the SAARC Council of Ministers.
Briefing reporters this evening on the day’s deliberations, Indias External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, said a meeting of SAARC Legal Advisors would be held in Colombo in April 2008 to finalise the draft of the MLAT.
“The Council of Ministers endorsed the SAARC Home Ministers recommendations for a security network within SAARC. They directed that the Draft Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance Criminal Matters be finalised as soon as possible. A meeting of Legal Advisors to attempt to finalise the Agreement will be held in Sri Lanka in April 2008,” he said.
Under the Treaty, the SAARC countries would exchange information about any criminal and terrorist activities in their respective countries as all the countries have been victims of terrorism.
“Todays meeting decided to move SAARC from the declaratory phase into the implementation mode and reviewed the implementation of the decisions taken at the 14th SAARC Summit held here on April 3-4 this year,” Mukherjee said.
On the SAARC Development Fund, the Minister said the meeting decided that it would be operationalised immediately. A temporary cell would be established in the SAARC Secretariat for the operationalisation of SAARC Development Fund and implementation of identified projects from available funds.
He said that several projects identified by the SAARC Ministerial and other meetings would be implemented now. These include social sector projects and physical connectivity projects and would have a fund of 300 million usd. India has already committed 100 million dollars which would be used to fund social projects.
The Minister said social projects would now be implemented in all the SAARC countries. “These are maternal and child health including immunisation, empowerment of women and other disadvantaged sections of society and capacity building aimed at enhancing quality of education including teacher training. A project on telemedicine will also be implemented,” he added.
“The Council of Ministers meeting also considered economic issues. They agreed that the development of regional infrastructure for trade, as part of overall regional connectivity in South Asia should be given priority,” Mukherjee said.
The Council of Ministers approved the appointment of new SAARC Secretary general – Dr Sheel Kant Sharma from India. Sri Lanka would host the 15th SAARC summit in 2008 and Maldives will host the 16th SAARC summit in 2009.
SAARC comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan.