Bangladesh News

Foreign secretaries of South Asian countries yesterday focused on the question of food security and reached a consensus on making Saarc Food Bank operational immediately to help any member state in case of exigencies.

Briefing reporters after the first day of the 35th session of the Saarc Standing Committee, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain said they also agreed on transfer of technology and extending institutional support for increasing production in agriculture sector.

He said the Saarc Council of Ministers comprising the foreign ministers, who will meet here July 31-August 1, will finalise the Standing Committee’s recommendations on these matters.

Touhid said at least two agreements concerning Saarc Development Fund (SDF) and Saarc Regional Standardisation Organisation (SARSO) will be signed at the summit on August 2-3. The headquarters of SARSO will be set up in Dhaka.

On trade, he said the meeting agreed that the next meeting of Safta Ministerial Council, comprising commerce ministers, at Male will try to reduce the negative lists of the member-states to boost the intra-Saarc trade.

Touhid said the foreign secretaries also stressed the need for activating and strengthening the Saarc Secretariat located in Kathmandu. Bangladesh circulated a concept paper on that at the meeting.

Besides, the meeting also discussed issues of energy and climate change.

AFP adds: Officials of an eight-nation South Asian grouping began talks here yesterday to prepare the groundwork for a summit later this week that will focus on trade and terrorism.

Delegates from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka began discussing arrangements for the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or Saarc, starting Saturday.

Sri Lanka has ramped up security in its already tightly guarded capital to unprecedented levels as it prepares to host regional leaders for the summit amid an escalating conflict with Tamil Tiger separatist rebels.

The official-level talks conclude Wednesday, and ministers will meet on Thursday to review the agenda for their leaders, officials said.

The meeting comes in the wake of terrorist attacks in India last weekend that killed 49 people and injured more than 160. A shadowy Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

“Spiralling food and oil prices and ways to offset the burden imposed by these on our economies will also be discussed” at the two-day summit, an Indian foreign ministry official said.

Leaders are expected to set up the Saarc Development Fund and agree to extend mutual legal assistance and cooperation in combating terrorism, he said.

“Poverty alleviation and development issues … are also on the agenda,” he said, adding that Saarc members will also complete formalities on the entry of Afghanistan, the newest country to join the grouping.

Saarc was formed in 1985 to speed up development and lift the region’s 1.5 billion people out of poverty, but the grouping is seen as being ineffective due to regional turmoil and bilateral tensions between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars.

South Asia houses half of the world’s poorest people.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan troops have killed at least 34 Tamil Tiger rebels and lost three of their own in the latest reported clashes in the island’s north, the defence ministry said yesterday.

Security forces fought with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern Wanni region where they have been trying to advance into rebel-held territory for weeks, the ministry said.

It said an estimated 37 guerrillas were also wounded in the clashes on Monday while security forces suffered another 11 wounded.

However, the LTTE said they beat back an army offensive on Monday, killing five soldiers and injuring seven others. The rebels did not give their own casualties.

The rebels also accused the military of firing heavy artillery and rockets into areas under their control on Sunday and Monday, despite the LTTE offer of a 10-day truce in place ahead of a South Asian meeting that began here Sunday.

Monday’s fighting raises the number of rebels killed by government troops since January to 5,366, while 471 soldiers have died in combat in the same period, according to a tally of defence ministry claims.

However, the ministry blocks access for journalists to visit frontlines, making it difficult to independently verify casualty numbers.