Dhaka: Alleging that activities at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have been suspended at India’s initiative, Bangladesh has said other countries in the region should not be victims of Indo-Pak enmity.
Expressing optimism about SAARC being revived, Foreign Adviser to Bangladesh’s Interim Government Touhid Hossain said all other countries in the region were eager to cooperate through SAARC.
“I don’t think it is impossible. I want to be optimistic. When SAARC was working, it was not that it brought about a huge change. But, some work was really going on, for example on meteorology, agriculture, free trade, etc,” Hossain told leading Bangladesh media outlet The Daily Star.
Pointing out that SAARC was going ahead even when India and Pakistan were engaged in small fights sometimes, the Th The former diplomat said: “The process was suspended by India’s initiative. India-Pakistan conflict won’t end overnight. But other South Asian countries should not be victims of this Indo-Pak enmity”.
He said Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus was interested in resuming the Saarc activities on whatever small scale. “We want to come out of the stalemate,” he said. UNI
