The Indian Minister for External Affairs, SM Krishna, had bilateral meetings with his counterparts in Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The Pakistan Foreign Minister could not come to the SAARC ministerial meeting due to the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle in that country.

Similarly in Nepal as the Cabinet was being formed there was no ministerial representation in the meeting. Both Pakistan and Nepal was represented by their foreign secretaries.

The Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and the Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir met on February 6 and agreed to resume dialogue on all issues following the spirit of the Thimphu meeting between the two Prime Ministers. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan will visit India by July 2011 to review progress in the dialogue process with his counterpart. This will be preceded by a meeting of the two foreign secretaries.

Both Rao and Bashir agreed that prior to the visit of the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, meetings at the level of respective Secretaries will be convened on counter-terrorism (including progress on Mumbai trial), humanitarian issues, peace and security, including confidence building measures, Kashmir issue, promotion of friendly exchanges, Siachen issue, economic issues, Wullar Barrage and Tulbul Navigation Project; and Sir Creek issue at the level of Additional Secretaries and Surveyors General. The dates of these meetings will be fixed through diplomatic channels.

In pursuance of the mandate given by the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, following their meeting in Thimphu in April 2010, the Minister of External Affairs of India and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan had met in Islamabad in July 2010 to review the current state of the bilateral relationship and discuss steps to promote trust and confidence between the two countries.

The King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyal deviated from the accepted international protocol and personally met the Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna at Taj Tashi in Thimphu. This is reflective of the very high esteem he has for India. The present King of Bhutan is an alumni of the National Defence College, New Delhi.

Indian Ambassador Pavan Verma also handed over a cheque of Rs.15 crore to the corpus of Kidu Foundation. The foundation was launched by Bhutan Prime Minister Thinley and the Indian Ambassador February 3, this year.

Bhutan’s Minister for Economic Affairs and the Acting Foreign Minister and as well as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Lyonpo Khandu Wangechuk expressed deep appreciation for India’s developmental assistance including in the establishment of hydroelectric capacity in Bhutan. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to attain a generation capacity of 10,000 MW as envisioned by the Prime Minister of India and the leadership of Bhutan.

Krishna complimented Bhutan for providing exceptional leadership to the SAARC process under its Chairmanship and for the marvelous organization of SAARC events. He spoke of the South Asian University which has started functioning since August 2010 and thanked Bhutan for its support.

South Asian University (SAU) has started functioning from August 2010 in New Delhi and 50 students from all over the region are already studying at the University. In September 2010 the Steering Committee of the SAU finalized all the modalities of the University and plans are now in place to convene the first meeting of the Governing Board of the University.

Krishna conveyed to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Prof Peiris India’s deep concern at the death of two Indian fishermen. Both agreed that use of force against fishermen must not be resorted to under any circumstances. The Sri Lankan minister said that a thorough investigation into the incidents was under way. An understanding was reached between the two countries in 2008 in this connection and both sides emphasized that it should be observed in letter and spirit so that such incidents do not re-occur in the future. Both the ministers welcomed the decision that was reached during the recent visit of the Indian foreign secretary to Sri Lanka for convening the next Joint Working Group meeting on fisheries very soon.

Sri Lanka thanked India for the substantial assistance for rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons (who are mostly Tamilians) and reconstruction of the infrastructure in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. Prof Peiris briefed Krishna on the recently held dialogue between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil National Alliance.

Krishna met his Bangladesh counterpart, Dr Dipu Moni and the two leaders noted with satisfaction that there had been good progress in talks inter alia between the Secretary of Water Resources who had met in January 2011, when they had satisfactory discussions on sharing of water of Teesta and Feni. They were also pleased at floating of tenders for several projects that had been envisaged during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in early 2010, within the framework of the $ one billion line of credit that India has agreed to extend to Bangladesh. They expressed satisfaction at the smooth progress in inter grid connectivity in the power sector. An understanding was reached during the visit of Sheikh Hasina, for India to supply 250 MW of power from our Central Grid.

The Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the President and Prime Minister of Nepal were recently in New Delhi and have expressed their cooperation with India.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has already become an effective regional body. The outgoing Dr Sheel Kant Sharma paved the way for the new incumbent Ms Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed of Maldives. The upcoming 17th SAARC Summit will be hosted by Maldives later this year.

Terrorism is a very serious challenge facing the entire South Asian region. The Third SAARC Home Ministers Meeting took place in Islamabad in June 2010. During the course of this meeting, important decisions were taken including the adoption of the Ministerial Statement on Cooperation against Terrorism. Other significant decisions were on the guidelines for the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme and Standard Operating Procedures to prevent trafficking in women and children, were also taken.

The 3rd SAARC Transport Ministers Meeting took place in New Delhi in November 2010 and discussed matters relating to the SAARC Regional Multimodal Transport Study as well as progress in the implementation of pilot, sub-regional and regional projects. A demonstration container train run is being planned, initially from Bangladesh to Nepal through India. This would hopefully show the potential for reducing freight costs in the region and give an impetus to trade.

However, some forward movement is still required with respect to the two draft Agreements on Motor Vehicles and Railways for the enhancement of intra-regional connectivity in South Asia.

SAARC Finance Ministers had their fourth meeting in Thimphu in August last year, where they considered matters of financial sector cooperation. Since then some progress has been made on a draft Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investments. This agreement when finalized would give a fillip to trade in the region. Some work has been done by SAARCFINANCE to promote greater cooperation among the Central Banks of our countries, especially with regard to monetary coordination and harmonization of banking rules.

The SAARC Tourism Ministers met recently in Kathmandu and noted that member states are taking necessary steps for tapping the vast potential in the tourism sector with due regard to its impact on society, culture and environment. Promoting intra-regional tourism through collective efforts will also contribute towards our shared vision of building a common South Asian identity.

The new CEO of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) is taking a keen interest in the follow up to ongoing projects under the social window of the Fund. India has agreed to provide all necessary help to the SDF in furthering this institution for regional development.

The intra-regional trade under SAFTA is growing and has crossed $ 1.2 billion. This is, however, still well below its potential. India is taking steps to reduce its sensitive lists, especially for LDCs. The signing of the SAARC Agreement on Trade in Services (SATIS) in Thimphu last year was a big step forward in broadening the scope of trade in SAARC from goods to include services. Already four SAARC member states have ratified SATIS.

India’s proposal to create a South Asia Forum for the exchange of ideas on the future development of South Asia has been endorsed by all members. Nomination of members to the Steering Committee of the Forum and hosting the first meeting of the Forum in India is likely before the 17th SAARC Summit in the Maldives.

Projects relating to tele-medicine, tele-education, rain water harvesting, seed testing laboratories and solar rural electrification unfunded by India are being implemented in some SAARC member states.

An ambitious statement on Climate Change was adopted at the 16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu. Bhutan presented a common position for SAARC at the COP16 in Cancun. It was due to the efforts of Bhutan SAARC was accorded Observer status to the UNFCCC Secretariat during COP16.