NEW DELHI : With South Asia increasingly being perceived as the nerve centre of terror, Government today strongly pitched for “sincere” and “effective cooperation” among countries in the region to root out the scourge of terrorism.
“The world’s attention is focused on the region because it is being perceived as the nerve centre of terrorism. Too many innocent lives are lost to terrorism every day. We are all victims of this menace. We need to ensure that double standards in dealing with terrorism are eschewed,” HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju said.
Observing that those propagating terror are often the worst victims of it, he said, “We need sincere and effective cooperation to root out this scourge”.
In this regard, Raju, who was the former MoS in the Defence Ministry, said initiatives taken by the SAARC forum provide excellent frameworks for cooperation to deal with this issue.
Speaking at the Sixth South Asian Conference organised by Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, he said countries in the region must work towards reinforcing the processes of change by building more capable institutions, improving governance, tackling corruption and reaching out to the vulnerable sections of the society.
“We must also take into account the desire of our people to connect with each other, physically, culturally and through sharing of ideas,” he said.
Noting that the region cannot be insulated from the ongoing economic crisis, Raju suggested finance ministers and the central bank governors come together to discuss the crisis at the earliest.
As India can play role of an economic power house in the region, all countries in the region could exploit opportunities to link up with the Indian economy and improve their own prospects of growth, he said.
He said Pakistan and India have taken some significant step forward to improve bilateral trade and hoped that if the tempo is maintained, volume of trade between the two countries will reach 10 billion dollar mark very soon.
“This has the potential to boost regional economic integration. The present intra-SAARC trade is only 4 per cent of the region’s global trade. There is enormous potential of intra-regional trade and investment that we must not leave untapped,” he said.
He said it was encouraging to find that there is greater willingness among the state to engage each other at all levels in spite of inhibitions and reservations in certain quarters.
In this regard, he said, “India need not be seen as a big-brother and this attitude must change. India faces the same problems as others in the region. Our destinies are closely interlinked. There is no escape from that reality,” he said. (agencies)
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