12-13-2003, 11:57 AM
All these visions are nice and goody-goody but I am not sure why the PM of India is referring to the subcontinent as South Asia. Everything around us is named after India (indian Ocean, Indonesia, Indo China, the east Indies). What is the necessity of inventing a new entity called South Asia ? And if somebody invented this term , why should we give credence to it by referring to it.
(The Pioneer URL is not datestamped, so the URL will not be valid tomorrow, hence i am posting the entire article.
PM outlines S Asia vision
Pioneer News Service/ New Delhi
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has urged South Asian nations to put aside mistrust and work for mutual security cooperation, open borders and even a single currency in the long run. Calling for a joint effort to tackle trans-border crimes to promote peace and harmony in the region, Mr Vajpayee cited the growing people-to-people contact as a reflection of "intense desire for amity and goodwill", and said the demands of globalisation and aspirations of people provided the objective basis for energetic pursuit of a "harmoniously integrated South Asia. The Prime Minister was inaugurating a two-day conference organised by the Hindustan Times on "Peace Dividend - Progress for India and South Asia."
Those attending the two-day meet include Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, President, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, Richard Haass, Francis Fukuyama of Johns Hopkins University, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Reliance Industries Vice-Chairman Anil Ambani, and former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan.
Pointing out that South Asian countries have waited for over half-a-century for fulfilment of "unexploited potential in their own neighbourhood", Mr Vajpayee said they were now impatient to move forward. "We can sense this impatience in the outpouring of popular sentiment after our initiatives. The increased travel between India and Pakistan of parliamentarians, businessmen, artists and sportsmen shows the intense desire for amity and goodwill. We have to respond to this desire by seeking every possible way to banish hostility and promote peace," he said.
Hindustan Times Vice-Chairperson and Editorial Director Shobhana Bhartia said the meet was an effort to create greater understanding and to resolve conflict in the South Asia region. South Asia matters because whatever happens in the region has consequences for the entire world, she said.
Noting that the conference was taking place ahead of the next month's SAARC Summit in Islamabad, the Prime Minister asked the delegates to discuss ideas on economic, strategic and geopolitical future of India and South Asia.
Calling for better understanding between SAARC nations, he said: "We can put aside mistrust and dispel unwarranted suspicions. We'll also develop mutual sensitivity to each others' concerns and promote more of our common interests."
Mr Vajpayee said if the SAARC countries - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives - provide legitimate avenues of free commercial interaction, they could eradicate black market and underground trade.
"We could jointly tackle smuggling, drug-trafficking, money-laundering and other trans-national crimes, which today flourish in our region because of our mutual rivalries and inadequate coordination. Once we reach that stage, we would not be far from mutual security cooperation, open borders and even a single currency," he said. The Prime Minister recalled that the world did not anticipate the sudden end to the Cold War or the collapse of the Berlin Wall and that no-one thought apartheid tainted South Africa could be transformed bloodlessly into Mandela's 'Rainbow Country'.
Not many political analysts would have predicted that the hostile suspicion between Russia and China could be converted in such a short time into a strategic partnership, the Prime Minister said. "Each one of these developments flows from objective factors in the global environment, but actually occurred because of some enlightened and responsible decisions by people at the helm of affairs," he said.
Looking back objectively at the freedom struggles and nation-building experiences in South Asia, the Prime Minister said, "Whenever we have dissipated our energies in internal squabbling, external forces have come in to sort out our differences and stayed on to exploit our resources. We should never create the possibility of reliving these historical experiences in new forms and on different fronts." Mr Vajpayee outlined eight strong points of South Asia to realise the full potential of the tremendous opportunities to its advantage, including rich and varied human resources, a population younger than the world average, growing knowledge economies and increasing purchasing power of the collective market.
Mr Vajpayee said other complementary strengths of the regions were efficient exploitation of synergies to enhance intra-regional trade, the massive untapped capacities for hydropower and unexploited hydrocarbons, rich diversity of bio-resources and combined political weight and economic strength that could give considerable leverage in pursuing the objective of a cooperative multipolar world order.
Discarding the myth that because of asymmetries in economies, smaller countries did not benefit from closer economic integration within South Asia, the Prime Minister said free trade agreements (FTA) with Nepal and Sri Lanka had resulted in narrowing the trade deficit of both these countries with India.
In fact, the success of the India-Sri Lanka FTA had inspired the two countries to expand their scope to cover services and investment in a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, he said, while giving examples of possibilities of cooperation between India and Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in the energy sector.
(The Pioneer URL is not datestamped, so the URL will not be valid tomorrow, hence i am posting the entire article.
PM outlines S Asia vision
Pioneer News Service/ New Delhi
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has urged South Asian nations to put aside mistrust and work for mutual security cooperation, open borders and even a single currency in the long run. Calling for a joint effort to tackle trans-border crimes to promote peace and harmony in the region, Mr Vajpayee cited the growing people-to-people contact as a reflection of "intense desire for amity and goodwill", and said the demands of globalisation and aspirations of people provided the objective basis for energetic pursuit of a "harmoniously integrated South Asia. The Prime Minister was inaugurating a two-day conference organised by the Hindustan Times on "Peace Dividend - Progress for India and South Asia."
Those attending the two-day meet include Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, President, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, Richard Haass, Francis Fukuyama of Johns Hopkins University, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Reliance Industries Vice-Chairman Anil Ambani, and former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan.
Pointing out that South Asian countries have waited for over half-a-century for fulfilment of "unexploited potential in their own neighbourhood", Mr Vajpayee said they were now impatient to move forward. "We can sense this impatience in the outpouring of popular sentiment after our initiatives. The increased travel between India and Pakistan of parliamentarians, businessmen, artists and sportsmen shows the intense desire for amity and goodwill. We have to respond to this desire by seeking every possible way to banish hostility and promote peace," he said.
Hindustan Times Vice-Chairperson and Editorial Director Shobhana Bhartia said the meet was an effort to create greater understanding and to resolve conflict in the South Asia region. South Asia matters because whatever happens in the region has consequences for the entire world, she said.
Noting that the conference was taking place ahead of the next month's SAARC Summit in Islamabad, the Prime Minister asked the delegates to discuss ideas on economic, strategic and geopolitical future of India and South Asia.
Calling for better understanding between SAARC nations, he said: "We can put aside mistrust and dispel unwarranted suspicions. We'll also develop mutual sensitivity to each others' concerns and promote more of our common interests."
Mr Vajpayee said if the SAARC countries - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives - provide legitimate avenues of free commercial interaction, they could eradicate black market and underground trade.
"We could jointly tackle smuggling, drug-trafficking, money-laundering and other trans-national crimes, which today flourish in our region because of our mutual rivalries and inadequate coordination. Once we reach that stage, we would not be far from mutual security cooperation, open borders and even a single currency," he said. The Prime Minister recalled that the world did not anticipate the sudden end to the Cold War or the collapse of the Berlin Wall and that no-one thought apartheid tainted South Africa could be transformed bloodlessly into Mandela's 'Rainbow Country'.
Not many political analysts would have predicted that the hostile suspicion between Russia and China could be converted in such a short time into a strategic partnership, the Prime Minister said. "Each one of these developments flows from objective factors in the global environment, but actually occurred because of some enlightened and responsible decisions by people at the helm of affairs," he said.
Looking back objectively at the freedom struggles and nation-building experiences in South Asia, the Prime Minister said, "Whenever we have dissipated our energies in internal squabbling, external forces have come in to sort out our differences and stayed on to exploit our resources. We should never create the possibility of reliving these historical experiences in new forms and on different fronts." Mr Vajpayee outlined eight strong points of South Asia to realise the full potential of the tremendous opportunities to its advantage, including rich and varied human resources, a population younger than the world average, growing knowledge economies and increasing purchasing power of the collective market.
Mr Vajpayee said other complementary strengths of the regions were efficient exploitation of synergies to enhance intra-regional trade, the massive untapped capacities for hydropower and unexploited hydrocarbons, rich diversity of bio-resources and combined political weight and economic strength that could give considerable leverage in pursuing the objective of a cooperative multipolar world order.
Discarding the myth that because of asymmetries in economies, smaller countries did not benefit from closer economic integration within South Asia, the Prime Minister said free trade agreements (FTA) with Nepal and Sri Lanka had resulted in narrowing the trade deficit of both these countries with India.
In fact, the success of the India-Sri Lanka FTA had inspired the two countries to expand their scope to cover services and investment in a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, he said, while giving examples of possibilities of cooperation between India and Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in the energy sector.