It is my proud privilege and pleasure to extend my profound appreciation and gratitude to your Excellencies for the immense cooperation you have all extended to me.

The Declaration adopted today is comprehensive and forward-looking. It gives SAARC a wider mandate to promote peace and development in our region, including through greater connectivity – in trade, in the movement of people and through the flow of ideas.

During this Summit we had the honour of admitting Afghanistan to take its due place in the comity of SAARC. We also had the privilege of welcoming Observers for the first time. They are among our major civilisational neighbours and economic partners. This manifests our common desire for SAARC to be outward looking and engaged with the world community; to be a springboard for exploiting the vast physical and intellectual resources of South Asia.

Our Summit has agreed to operationalise the SAARC Development Fund; establish the South Asian University; create a SAARC Food Bank; and, set up the SAARC Arbitration Council. The cooperation and accommodation that have characterized our deliberations and negotiations show that our countries are ready for a transformation of SAARC into an effective instrument of regional cooperation.

The quality of our discussions in the Retreat today morning gives me confidence that we can soon bring the fruits of SAARC to our people. We have agreed to make tangible progress in the next six months on four issues which affect our people's daily lives: water (including flood control), energy, food and the environment. We will work with international agencies to develop and implement viable cross-border regional projects in these four sectors, which address our people's basic needs.

We have also decided to designate 2008 as the "SAARC Year of Good Governance".

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The founders of SAARC based their vision on our ancient links, our contemporary needs and our future potential. We must nurture our common roots, extend our branches of cooperation and enable the resultant fruits to reach our people. This we owe to our people. This we owe to posterity.

India has come to occupy the chair at an important moment in our region’s history. Our region has been transformed in the last half century. Yet, we face the challenge of being home to the largest concentration of poor and illiterate people. We must win decisively the war against poverty, ignorance and disease. I cannot agree more that the touchstone of our efforts to reinvigorate SAARC must be the difference our efforts make to the lives of the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak. This is our highest mandate.

To win this war, we must work together. We must resolve our differences, and we must enhance regional cooperation. We must also win the war against all forms of extremism and intolerance in our region.

Our people have immense creative potential. If we invest in their capabilities and create an environment in which these capabilities bear fruit, South Asia will march forward in confidence and in peace. It should be our endeavour to work together to make that future happen.

In the discussions we have had, I can say with all sincerity that I did feel a new sense of purpose and determination among the leaders of SAARC. We stand today at the crossroads of historic change and opportunity. I believe that this Summit has given us the hope that we can live in peace and amity and the confidence that we can make SAARC work. I pledge to work sincerely under the able guidance and cooperation of the leaders of South Asia to make the year ahead a turning point in the history of SAARC. I believe that a new dawn is breaking out over South Asia and that we are all set to fulfill the promise and vision of SAARC.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

I thank you all, once again, for your leadership, your support and your friendship.

I thank all of you.

 

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