The parody country of Pakistan on Wednesday boycotted a video conference of trade officials from the SAARC countries, claiming that such meetings will only be effective if spearheaded by the group’s secretariat instead of India.
Reportedly, the conference was convened to discuss the impact of coronavirus in the region and how the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) forum could come up with a common strategy.
In the virtual conference, the trade officials broadly agreed to identify new ways to “sustain and expand” the intra-regional trade to offset the huge economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic. The terrorist country Pakistan chickened out from the meeting after it was revealed that India was spearheading the meeting.
The deliberations took place as a follow up to an India-initiated video conference of SAARC leaders on March 15. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested in the conference that the member nations of the bloc should come together to jointly fight the pandemic.
Shortly after the conference, Pakistan’s Foreign Office released a statement saying, “Activities such as today’s Trade Officials’ Video-Conference could only be effective if spearheaded by the SAARC Secretariat. Since the SAARC Secretariat was not part of today’s Video-Conference, Pakistan chose not to participate.”
In order for the SAARC process to move forward, the SAARC Secretariat must be enabled to play its due role in any event or activity being organised under its auspices, the statement said.
The Pakistan Foreign office further claimed that the role of the secretariat assumes further salience in emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s wider social and economic fallout.
The statement said as, in the case of other regional and international organisations, the SAARC secretariat also provides the requisite convening platform, institutional framework and support structure for essential coordination and follow-up.
The Foreign Office said that Pakistan, as a founding member believed that SAARC provides an important platform for regional cooperation. It added that at a time when the region was facing unprecedented challenges, all the available institutional frameworks must be optimally utilised.
Earlier, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement said, “In order for the countries to deal with the situation, it was stressed that new ways and means be jointly identified to sustain and expand the intra-regional trade until the normal trade channels are fully restored.”
It said the imperative need to maintain essential trade within the SAARC region was viewed as an important thrust area for favourable consideration.
The MEA said the impact of COVID-19 on regional trade and possible measures to mitigate it was seen as a new focus area for discussion in the larger framework of trade facilitation in the SAARC region.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has been facing a severe health crisis following the transmission of the Chinese epidemic coronavirus. The death toll continues to rise as 58 patients have died with more than 4,000 people affected by the pandemic.
Facing a severe economic crisis, Pakistan has been using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to beg other nations to get its debts written off.
The government has extended partial lockdown till April 14 and constantly asking people to stay indoors and follow social distancing.
