Turkey to get Saarc observer status

[Lankan Ranger]

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Turkey to get Saarc observer status

The eight-nation South Asian regional bloc, Saarc, is likely to engage more observers for the greater benefit of the 26-year old organisation and revamp its activities after the 17th summit scheduled here for November 10 and 11, diplomatic sources hinted here yesterday.

The foreign secretaries of the eight Saarc countries-Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka- have unanimously taken a resolution on Tuesday to give Turkey an observer status, which eight countries and the European Union are now enjoining.

But senior diplomats of the South Asia, home to 160 crore people, feel an urgency to give Saarc observer status to more countries to widen the Saarc activities and engage civil society organisations to infuse dynamism into the regional block.

“More and more countries and organisations are keen to get engaged in the Saarc and it has become essential to find a mechanism to engage them effectively for the greater interest of South Asian countries and the block itself,” foreign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told journalists at the end of the two-day foreign secretary level meeting.

Mijarul said the foreign secretaries, who together represent the Saarc standing committee, have discussed few options for observers' effective engagement into the Saarc.

He, however, said the issue of observers' recognition and engagement would be discussed in details at a meeting between council of foreign ministers and the foreign secretaries.

“The leadership of Saarc is hopefully going to give a observer status to Turkey during the 17th summit in the city,” said Mohamed Naseer, permanent secretary and chairman of Saarc standing committee.

He said the eight-member Saarc has nine observers, who include the United States, Japan, China, Australia, Iran, South Korea, Mauritius and Myanmar and the 25-member European Union.

With Turkey becomes a new observer, Saarc, which stands for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, will have 10 observers in total.

This number is likely to grow further as a number of influential and strategic countries are on the pipeline for Saarc observer status, said another diplomat on the sidelines of standing committee meeting.

Naseer said the South Asian Forum, a platform for civil society engagement, would be patronised and encouraged to flourish and get new ideas from them to strengthen Saarc, which tuned into a being in 1985 in Dhaka with an objective for regional prosperity through mutual trust and multilateralism.

Turkey to get Saarc observer status

[KS]

# of observers > # of members.

Funny.

[Saithan]

meh, it's not very different than 5 perm members < rotating members. I think what you should focus on is the dynamism of that area. And the challenges they face. Also Saarc has been around for 26 years, which is pretty good

[eastwatch]

That Turkey wants to get an observer status shows that SAARC is not a dead horse. Rather, with dynamic economies in some of its member staes SAARC will become an important group when Pakistan gets rid of its fanatics and goes after further economic development, and China joins it as a new member.

Now-a-days we do not hear much about ASEAN grouping, but SAARC is still active. Next few decades will see a tremendous economic progress of its member countries. Other countries want to sit in the SAARC meeting because they want to get the firsthand knowledge of the thinking, planning and policy decisions of its member countries.

[rai_kamal]

That Turkey wants to get an observer status shows that SAARC is not a dead horse. Rather, with dynamic economies in some of its member staes SAARC will become an important group when Pakistan gets rid of its fanatics and goes after further economic development, and China joins it as a new member.

Now-a-days we do not hear much about ASEAN grouping, but SAARC is still active. Next few decades will see a tremendous economic progress of its member countries. Other countries want to sit in the SAARC meeting because they want to get the firsthand knowledge of the thinking, planning and policy decisions of its member countries.

Why they want to go get bankrupt..???
We have made it for "REGIONAL COPERATION" and the outsiders wants to make it for "TRADE COPERATION", its business sir..

[bdslph]

i fully support TURKEY in joining the SAARC

[EastWest]

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That Turkey wants to get an observer status shows that SAARC is not a dead horse. Rather, with dynamic economies in some of its member staes SAARC will become an important group when Pakistan gets rid of its fanatics and goes after further economic development, and China joins it as a new member.

Now-a-days we do not hear much about ASEAN grouping, but SAARC is still active. Next few decades will see a tremendous economic progress of its member countries. Other countries want to sit in the SAARC meeting because they want to get the firsthand knowledge of the thinking, planning and policy decisions of its member countries.

China will never be a part of SAARC.

It can be SAARC+1 arrangment similar to what we,China have with EU and ASEAN..but no membership to China..period!