Last Updated: May 12, 2010
Speeches
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April 30, 2010
Press Statement by Rt. Hon. Madhav Kumar Nepal, Prime Minister of Nepal on his return home after attending the 16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu, Bhutan
The 16th SAARC Summit was successfully held in Thimphu, Bhutan, on 28-29 April 2010. The Summit was preceded by the meetings of the SAARC Council of Ministers, the Standing Committee of Foreign Secretaries and the Programming Committee of senior officials. Hon. Sujata Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs led the Nepalese delegation to the SAARC Council of Ministers.
The Summit has a special significance in the history of SAARC as it marks the silver jubilee anniversary of the establishment of the regional organization. Climate change and environmental degradation was the main theme of the Summit. The Thimphu Silver Jubilee Declaration, which was themed "Towards Green and Happy South Asia" has demonstrated the commitment of the SAARC leaders to address the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation in the region.
During the Summit and in other preceding meetings, Nepal emphasized the need for collective resolve to meet the imminent risk posed by climate change to mountainous countries like Nepal. We underscored the imperative need of regional strategy and concrete action plan to protect and preserve fragile eco-system of mountainous countries. In this regard, the Summit endorsed Nepal’s initiative to organize a ministerial meeting of mountainous countries in Kathmandu later this year.
The environmental challenges have aptly been reflected in Thimphu Statement on Climate Change, which prescribes to commission SAARC inter-governmental mountain initiative as well as monsoon initiative and climate-related disasters initiative to address emerging challenges of climate change in the region. The Statement also agrees to plant ten million trees over the next five years (2010-2015) as part of the regional afforestation campaign.
One of the important outcomes of the Summit was the signing of the SAARC Convention on Cooperation on Environment. The Convention aims to extend to exchange best practices and knowledge, capacity building and transfer of technology in such areas as afforestation, air quality management, biological diversity, climate change, coastal zone management, eco-system management for sustainable livelihood, global environmental issues, land degradation and desertification, mountain eco-system, glaciers and glacial lakes, river eco-system including river cleaning, strengthening disaster management capabilities, waste management, wildlife conservation, water management and conservation, soil erosion and sedimentation etc.
Similarly, the Summit endorsed our proposal of appointing legendary Everest summiteer Mr. Appa Sherpa as SAARC Goodwill Ambassador on Climate Change. His appointment as SAARC Goodwill Ambassador is a fitting recognition to a man who has dedicated from his childhood to mountaineering and who has closely seen the effects of climate change in the Himalayas from the close quarter.
Another important document that was signed during the Thimphu summit was SAARC Agreement on Trade in Services, which will bring this important sector within the SAFTA framework and give real boost to SAARC intra-regional trade. The objectives of the Agreement is to promote and enhance trade in services among the SAARC member states in a mutually beneficial and equitable manner by establishing a framework for liberalizing and promoting trade in services in the region.
The inauguration of the Permanent Secretariat of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) in Thimphu was another important highlight of the Summit, which formally operationalised the Fund. We are confident that SDF can be an effective instrument for carrying out regional/sub-regional projects directly benefitting the people in the region.
The Summit welcomed the commencement of academic session of the South Asian University (SAU) in New Delhi in August 2010. The SAU has provision of regional campuses in other member states as well.
The Summit reviewed the progress in the implementation of various decisions made by the Colombo Summit on such important areas as poverty alleviation, implementation of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), physical connectivity, and enhancing cooperation for energy security, food security, and to chart future roadmap for a South Asian identity.
Poverty alleviation was an important agenda of the Thimphu SAARC Summit. The Summit called for the realization of the South Asian Development Goals (SDGs) by intensifying poverty alleviation programmes at national levels. In this regard, the Summit welcomed the offer of the Government of Nepal to host the SAARC Ministerial Meeting on Poverty Alleviation in 2011 for mid-term review of the SDGs and to chart future course of action.
Physical connectivity through improved road, rail, and air links and increased contacts at people to people level to foster goodwill and understanding was also high in the Summit Agenda. Nepal emphasized the need for easy access and improved road and rail links for land-locked member states like Nepal. In this regard, the Summit declared 2010-2020 as the "Decade of Intra-regional Connectivity in SAARC" and also agreed on the need to expedite the negotiation process for SAARC agreements on Motor Vehicles and Railways.
We also stressed the need for promotion of tourism in the region to enhance people-to-people interactions. Keeping this into consideration, we proposed to organize SAARC Tourism Ministers meeting in Kathmandu in early 2011 to coincide with Nepal Tourism Year 2011, which was adopted by the Summit.
The Summit underscored the important role of young people in promoting the bond of regional cooperation, and called for the convening of SAARC Youth Summit. The Summit also stressed the role of Parliamentarians for consolidation of democracies in the region and called for the convening of a "Conclave of SAARC Parliamentarians". In addition, the Summit also noted with appreciation the idea of Bangladesh on a SAARC Charter of Democracy.
In the Thimphu Summit, Australia and Myanmar attended for the first time as Observers. Other observers attending the Summit were the People’s Republic of China, Japan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Republic of Korea, Mauritius, the United States, and the European Union.
The Summit also provided opportunity for having informal and most useful bilateral meetings with several Heads of State/Government. We had the opportunity of friendly interactions with the President of Afghanistan, Prime Minister of Bhutan, President of the Maldives, President of Sri Lanka, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Prime Minister of India, during which we shared views on bilateral cooperation and on matters of mutual interests.
We also had a fruitful interaction with His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, King of Bhutan. On the sidelines of the visit Honorable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sujata Koirala exchanged views with her counterparts and representatives of Observer States of the SAARC.
The Summit has thus provided us a good opportunity not only to reaffirm Nepal’s long-standing conviction and commitment to the SAARC process but also to demonstrate our new initiatives to move ahead the SAARC to the tune of emerging realities and challenges when we are marking the silver jubilee anniversary of SAARC.
Kathmandu
30 April 2010
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