,
South Asian leaders were to wrap up a two-day summit Wednesday setting the fight against terrorism and stronger trade as priorities for a region that is home to nearly 1.5 billion people.
Diplomats and officials admitted however that differences between India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, looked likely to once again water down any final declaration.
Indian Premier Manmohan Singh met his Pakistan counterpart Shaukat Aziz on the sidelines to “carry out an overview of their bilateral relations” and the peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbours, said a Pakistani official.
The talks were part of a series of one-to-one sessions held between leaders attending the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
India has led the cry to “root out terrorism”, in an effort to revive the fortunes of SAARC.
And the eight member nations have agreed that real economic progress in South Asia — home to half the world's poor — was impossible without conquering security issues.
“The wording of the final declaration is being worked out. But fighting terrorism will definitely be in the joint declaration,” to be issued Wednesday, said an Indian foreign ministry official, who declined to be named.
This was because “seven out of eight SAARC countries have identified terrorism as a major problem,” he said.
A South Asian diplomat said it was unclear whether officials from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka would “agree on a mechanism to combat the menace” of terrorism.
On Tuesday, Aziz stuck to Pakistan's position that open trade with India depended on a solution for Kashmir, which is divided between the two rivals and subject to a slow peace process.
Aziz reiterated that Kashmir was the “key dispute” between India and Pakistan and linked free trade with India to progress on the issue of Kashmir.
An Indian official said the final declaration would include boosting trade between the eight nations — which has remained at a paltry five percent of the countries' total commerce — through increased connectivity and improved infrastructure.
India did announce Tuesday duty-free access for its smaller South Asian neighbours and a more liberal visa regime.
“There should be some reference in the joint statement about the effective implementation of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA),” that was agreed in 2006, the official said.
But until India and Pakistan can agree on Kashmir, trade looks set to remain severely limited.
SAARC, created in 1985 to speed economic development and trade, has made little progress, largely because of bickering among member states — particularly India and Pakistan.
New Delhi had set the fight against terrorism as the priority from the outset at Tuesday's opening session with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging member states to implement earlier pledges made “to root out terrorism.”
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai were quick to echo the call.
“The real problem regarding implementation of earlier conventions on terrorism has been the serious political differences and tensions between member states like, for instance, India and Pakistan,” said former Indian diplomat Krishna V. Rajan.
“The same can be said about Pakistan and Afghanistan,” added Rajan.
Security analyst C.Uday Bhaskar said “the orientation of some states towards terrorism is going to be the biggest challenge in terms of how the declaration emerges on Wednesday.
“SAARC has also found it difficult to implement earlier promises to combat terror because the members had different definitions,” he noted.
