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"SAARC should have greater and closer cooperation and
integration in all aspects" - FM
Dr. Sheel Khant Sharma, Secretary General of the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) visited Sri Lanka
on May 26 as part of his familiarisation visits to the member
countries.
During his stay in Sri Lanka, the Secretary General paid
courtesy calls on President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Foreign Minister
Rohitha Bogollagama and Secretary, Foreign Affairs Dr. Palitha
Kohona and discussed matters pertaining to the forthcoming SAARC
Summit in Colombo.
The discussion between the Sri Lankan leaders and the Secretary
General also focused on strengthening regional cooperation to
address the emerging global issues such as energy, security,
food, environment and water.
The Secretary General assured his cooperation to make the 15th
SAARC Summit in Colombo a success and expressed his commitment
to work closely with the member countries to realise the Charter
objectives for the benefit of the region.
During his meeting with Foreign Minister Bogollagama the
Secretary General discussed issues of relevance and significance
of the forthcoming SAARC Summit in Colombo and broached and
mapped out other pertinent areas and sectors with high
potentiality. Both the Foreign Minister and the Secretary
General agreed that the countries in SAARC region should have
greater and closer cooperation and integration in all aspects.
Further, the Foreign Minister added that the myriad of
endowments of the member countries of SAARC could be
efficaciously utilized, thus leading to economic progress.
Minister Bogollagama highlighted the vitality of smooth and
effective connectivity within the Region of SAARC, which was the
theme of the 14th SAARC Summit in New Delhi held last year. He
further impressed that connectivity would lead to closer
relations not only between and among the member countries and
the people but also would lead to economic advancement, in
particular, among others. Minister Bogollagama further added
that the theme of the 15th SAARC Summit, which would be held in
Colombo, too would be based and closely associated with the
previous theme of ‘Connectivity’, since it would have a sense of
continuity.
The two dignitaries also discussed other issues of extreme
importance to the Region such as energy, infrastructure
development, air connectivity, food security, enhancement of
bilateral trade and investment and funds for development and for
disaster management in the Region of SAARC among others. The
Foreign Minister also highlighted to the Secretary General of
the increasing interest expressed by other countries to be
observer members of the SAARC Summit and seven Observer Members
will be attending for the 15th SAARC Summit. The SAARC Summit,
as customary, would be attended by the Heads of State/Government
of all member countries. It was also stated that SAARC, with a
population of 1.45 billion which is 23% of the global humanity,
has become a vibrant regional organization particularly during
the last decade. |