The South Asian leaders on Friday ‘dropped’ a proposal mooted by Bangladesh for ‘management of common rivers in the region’ from the declaration of the 17th SAARC Summit in the Maldives.
They took the decision to drop article 10 of the 22-point draft declaration that sought ‘to direct the SAARC environment ministers to consider development of modalities on the management of common rivers in the region.’
The SAARC Council of
Ministers comprising foreign ministers of the regional grouping finalised the draft declaration at Equatorial Convention Centre at Addu on Wednesday.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, in her address to the summit on Thursday, called for basin-based management of common rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra, in the region.
The South Asian leaders dropped the article 10 at the request of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh at the summit retreat at Shangri-La on Indian Ocean island of Villingili on Friday morning, diplomatic sources said.
The newly elected SAARC chair and Maldives president, Mohamed Nasheed, Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai, Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Nepal’s prime minister Baburam Bhattarai, Pakistan prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa and SAARC secretary general Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed were also present at the retreat.
The Bangladesh side tried to persuade India on the sidelines of the summit to keep the provision of common river management in the declaration. But India declined the proposal.
The SAARC leaders adopted the Addu Declaration at the concluding session of the summit on Friday.
The regional forum takes decisions on consensus.
They dropped another proposal seeking to elevate the SAARC secretary general to the status of a foreign minister from the next term of the office.
Source: New Age
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