Ironically, Lahore becomes sticking point

NUWARA ELIYA SRI LANKA, March 18: The widely welcomed Lahore Declaration suddenly became the most contentious issue at the 21st SAARC f...

NUWARA ELIYA SRI LANKA, March 18: The widely welcomed Lahore Declaration suddenly became the most contentious issue at the 21st SAARC foreign ministers8217; meeting, as India and Pakistan bickered over whether or not it should find a place in SAARC documents.

The foreign secretaries of the seven member states who constitute the SAARC Standing Committee, were huddled together in informal meetings through Thursday to find a solution to this issue.

While Pakistan wanted the Lahore Declaration mentioned in the Standing Committee report as an important development in the region since the Colombo summit, India wanted no reference to it as it was a 8220;purely bilateral8221; matter and outside the charter of SAARC, officials said.

The result was a watered-down report which made no mention of any 8220;contentious8221; issues. It also excluded any reference to a mechanism for 8220;informal political discussions8221; at SAARC and stated only that the Standing Committee had met to discuss various items on the agenda.

As the deadlock continued into the evening, the mood among the delegates was gloomy and in direct contrast to the optimistic note struck by President Chandrika Kumaratunga in her inaugural address. 8220;The dark clouds that have sometimes cast their shadow on our path towards friendship and co-operation are now being dispelled. Fresh winds are blowing across the region,8221; Kumaratunga said in an reference to the Lahore Declaration.

She described it as a 8220;new path8221; that India and Pakistan had opened and said it brought the 8220;assurance of a propitious new era that will ease constraints on our working unitedly for the greater happiness, progress and prosperity of all our peoples.8221; But as Pakistan and India remained deadlocked over the Standing Committee report, there was little to show that such an era had begun.

Finally, the deadlock was broken after a lengthy informal meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

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The Standing Committee will now meet again in an extraordinary session on Friday to adopt the original report. It will also contain some reflection of the Lahore Declaration, though it is not clear in what form.

The unexpected obstacle of the Lahore Declaration totally derailed the schedule of the conference, with the ministers unable to begin their official meeting till the deadlock was broken.

The official meeting of the ministers was to begin this afternoon after Kumaratunga inaugurated it in a grand ceremony at the President8217;s Lodge this morning. It began finally around 9 pm after informal deliberations on the Standing Committee report.