Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's opening statement at Press Conference in Dhaka

"I have come here soon after the conclusion of the Retreat. This afternoon we have had intensive discussions on issues in our Retreat which will have a bearing on the future of SAARC.

This has been a very productive Summit in terms of the number of proposals that have been put forward. To my mind, this is reflective of at least two features - that there is a shared belief among the SAARC members that SAARC can and should do more. We all feel there is scope for more concrete action in regional cooperation, and its corollary, that not enough has been done. The other salient feature is that that all SAARC member countries are positive about the potential for cooperation, and continue to hope that this will be realized. Speaking for India, we certainly are enthusiastic about SAARC. We have seen how regional cooperation has been an effective force elsewhere and are committed to doing whatever is possible to give impetus to this process in South Asia.

We have made a series of proposals here in Dhaka; some concrete proposals have been agreed. We are glad that SAARC members accepted our proposal to establish a SAARC Centre for Disaster Management and Preparedness in New Delhi. This will draw and build upon capacities that we have created in our National Institute for Disaster Management, which has developed quickly into an effective centre of specialized and practical know-how in this field. As has been unfortunately evident this last year, this is a subject that we cannot neglect.

Discussions on outstanding issues related to SAFTA continue to be under discussion. There will be further negotiations at the level of experts in late November. The intention is for SAFTA to come into effect on the target date of 1st January, 2006.

We have also proposed to our SAARC neighbours an open skies arrangement which will enable a substantial increase in intra-SAARC flights. We hope this will be discussed and agreed in the months to come. The SAARC Car Rally we have proposed, when it happens will surely catalyze a concerted effort to improve road connectivity in SAARC. There are other proposals we have put forth such as a South Asian Energy Dialogue and the case for SAARC Multi-model connectivity which we feel are compelling and attractive. The concrete modalities for these are still to be developed but they are crucial to our vision of a seamless and strong SAARC and South Asia.

We hope that by the next SAARC Summit which we will host, there will be measurable progress on these and other proposals.

As in customary, I also used the opportunity of the presence here of the leaders of SAARC countries to hold bilateral meetings. You have been briefed about these meetings already. Let me say that we went over all the important issues on the bilateral agenda with our neighbours. It is not always possible to visit individual counties, so an occasion like this is helpful to give momentum to the process of energizing the substantive neighbourly ties that we desire.

I will now take your questions."