China, Japan to be observers at 146;07 summit

The decks have been cleared for China and Japan to attend the next SAARC summit in 2007 as observers while the applications of US and South Korea...

The decks have been cleared for China and Japan to attend the next SAARC summit in 2007 as observers while the applications of US and South Korea have been accepted without much objection by the body8217;s standing committee comprising foreign secretaries of the member states, who recently met in Dhaka.

The foreign secretaries also finalised a joint declaration that would make Afghanistan a full member of the Association. This will be signed at the next summit to be held in India and would be attended by Afghanistan taking the total membership of the body to eight.

The applications from the US and South Korea were recently received. While the standing committee has accepted them, these will have to be placed before the Council of Ministers and then the full summit before an invite can be extended.

But given that there was no objection at the foreign secretaries8217; meeting, the applications will get the stamp of approval in due course and both countries would be able to attend the summit after the next one.

The foreign secretaries also agreed on a set of guidelines for the role of observers, a subject that was under discussion for some time. These are:

8226; The observers will only be allowed to attend the opening and closing ceremonies.

8226; They will not be allowed to make any statements, but can circulate statements on any issue.

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8226; On a case-by-case basis, observer states can make specific presentations in case they wish to propose a partnership or cooperative venture.

These guidelines have been arrived at after looking at systems being followed by other regional bodies like ASEAN. The SAARC Council of Ministers are slated to meet in July to approve this, paving way for China and Japan to attend the summit in India.

For all the doubts being raised over Washington8217;s intent to join the grouping as an observer, there was hardly any resistance to the proposal. In fact, the meeting which was to span over two days got over in a day with the foreign secretaries being able to conclude business earlier than expected.