In the shadow of the serial blasts in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, as well as the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, India is going to give a final push to seal a convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters at the SAARC summit in Colombo, setting the stage for terrorism to be the centerpiece of the agenda.The convention would provide a broad framework for SAARC member countries to “mutually cooperate and assist in the investigation and prosecution of crime and the tracing, restraint and forfeiture of the proceeds and instruments of crime”. Under this proposed convention, the member states shall “grant to each other the widest possible measure of mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.”With India being at the centre of terror attacks last weeks and probes suggesting that “elements” in Pakistan could have been behind the Kabul embassy bombing earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs is going ahead with the brief to “negotiate and finalise the text” of the convention. Following the Cabinet authorisation last week, senior MEA officials are already negotiating the agreement, which is expected to move towards fruition during the 35th Standing Committee meeting of SAARC on July 29 and 30. The upsurge of violence in Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s tribal areas have also turned the focus to terrorism.Besides terrorism, issues of food security and climate change will also be discussed. Also on agenda is signing of the charter of the SAARC Development Fund, agreement on the establishment of SAARC Regional Standards Organisation and the Protocol on the Accession of Afghanistan to SAFTA. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will attend the summit.
