Pakistan concedes, says SAARC summit can be postponed; rules out shifting venue

India pulled off a diplomatic coup against Pakistan by getting Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan to its side by forcing cancellation of the 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit. The summit is scheduled to be held in Islamabad in the scenic Pakistani resort of Murre in November.

Sources here said the current chair Nepal was trying to shift the venue, in view of reservations expressed by these countries to visit Islamabad. In a high-level meeting called by Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda in Kathmandu, it was decided that efforts will be made to reach out to countries to ensure that the Saarc meeting goes on.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office late on Wednesday conceded the postponement of the summit, but ruled out shifting the venue or to give up hosting the summit in the near future.

Adviser to the Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said in Islamabad that the Saarc secretariat has not yet informed them officially about the postponement of the conference. He however said that chances were that the Saarc conference would be postponed. He added that whenever the conference took place, it would be held in Pakistan.

Meanwhile in New Delhi, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also said a formal announcement to this effect would be made by Nepal. “The rule is that if any one head of State or Government decides not to participate in the Saarc Summit, it has to be postponed. All eight Heads of Saarc countries must be present for the Summit,” Swarup said, adding that “if any one country decides not to participate, the Summit has to be postponed.”

Experts here believe that thanks to tough diplomacy, other countries in the region have bought the Modi government’s message, after the Pathankot and Uri attacks, that there cannot be business as usual with Islamabad, unless it turns the tap of terrorism off. Significantly, India’s decision to pull out of the summit coincided with the demarche handed over to the Pakistan High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit on Uri attack.

Sources in the Saarc secretariat in Kathmandu said that they had received letters from Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan on the same day on Tuesday, when India pulled out of the summit.

The letter sent by the Bangladesh Foreign Office stated: “The growing interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh by one country has created an environment which is not conducive to the successful hosting of the 19th SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November 2016. Bangladesh, as the initiator of the SAARC process, remains steadfast in its commitment to regional cooperation, connectivity and contacts but believes that these can only go forward in a more congenial atmosphere. In view of the above, Bangladesh is unable to participate in the proposed Summit in Islamabad.”

Immediately after Dhaka’s note, the secretariat received a communication from Bhutan as well. It noted the concern of the Royal Government of Bhutan on the recent escalation of terrorism in the region which has seriously compromised the environment for the successful holding of the summit.

“Further, the Royal Government of Bhutan shares the concerns of some of the member countries of SAARC on the deterioration of regional peace and security due to terrorism and joins them in conveying our inability to participate in the SAARC Summit, under the current circumstances,” said the communication.

Afghanistan, however, was more diplomatic, referring to violence in its own country rather blaming Islamabad, as the reason for staying back in Kabul. “Due to increased levels of violence and fighting as a result of imposed terrorism on Afghanistan, H.E. the President of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani with his responsibilities as the Commander in Chief will be fully engaged, and will not be able to attend the Summit,” said the communication from the Afghanistan Foreign Office.

This is third time in the history of SAARC since its inception in 1985, when the summit has got aborted. In 1991, Bhutan had opted out from the Colombo summit and in 2005 India withdrew from attending the summit in Dhaka. According to the eight-member body’s charter, the conference is postponed should any member state decline to participate.

In August, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had attended a SAARC home minister‘s session in Islamabad despite a fierce decline in relations. But, a fortnight later, India decided not to send Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to attend another ministerial meeting.

In the past, SAARC summits have come in handy to calm down India-Pakistan tensions and to begin a new chapter in relations. Starting with May 1997, the Male meeting between Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujarat and his counterpart Nawaz Sharif identified eight outstanding issues, formed working groups on each of them and opened ways for a new format of dialogue called the “composite dialogue process” that lasted till 2015, when it was renamed the “comprehensive dialogue process.”

It was again at the 11th Saarc summit at Kathmandu in January 2002 where Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf shook hands in the midst of war cries following the December 13, 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. Musharraf, after delivering his speech, moved towards Vajpayee, who got up from his seat and extended his hand to him. Two years later at the 12th summit in Islamabad, on 4–6 January 2004, the two leaders inked a historic joint statement, where Pakistan committed to turn off the tap of terrorism, leading to hectic backchannel and track-II activity to find a solution to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

Even though, just three months later, when Vajpayee lost the elections, his successor Manmohan Singh continued the initiative, which was aborted after July 2007 train bombings and then November 2008 attack in Mumbai.