Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan join India in boycotting Islamabad Saarc Summit

New Delhi: India has declared to boycott the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit in Islamabad. The move is seen as a tough diplomatic response to the Uri terror attack that ironically risks jettisoning the Prime Minister’s signature foreign policy initiative.

• The upcoming SAARC conference will be cancelled after a number of members decided to boycott the conference in Islamabad. Nepal currently chairs the SAARC chair. Its Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is on a foreign visit and  official announcement regarding the cancellation will be made later in the evening, Sources said. Summit is not held even if a single nation does not show up.

 

• The 19th Saarc Summit to be hosted by Pakistan in November is likely to be cancelled with India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan - four of the eight members of the South Asian grouping - deciding to pull out, citing incitement of terrorism in the region.

 

• "Due to increased level of violence and fighting as a result of imposed terrorism on Afghanistan, President of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani with his responsibilities as the Commander in Chief will be fully engaged, and will not be able to attend the summit," sources quoted Kabul as saying in a message to Saarc chair Nepal on Tuesday.

 

• In a similar message to Nepal, Bangladesh on Tuesday said: "The growing interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh by one country has created an environment which is not conducive to the successful hosting of the 19th Saarc (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) Summit in Islamabad in November 2016."

 

• In its message to Nepal, Bhutan, while reaffirming its strong commitment to the Saarc process and strengthening of regional cooperation, noted that "the concern of the Royal Government of Bhutan on the recent escalation of terrorism in the region, which has seriously compromised the environment for the successful holding of the 19th SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November 2016", it is learned.

 

• Sri Lanka, it is learned, has said that the event would not be possible without India's participation.

 

• India on Tuesday announced that it was pulling out of the Islamabad summit after the September 18 cross-border terror attack on an Indian Army base in Uri.

 

• With the Saarc process based on consensus, even if one member does not attend the summit is automatically postponed or cancelled.

 

• Eight of the previous 18 Saarc summits were postponed, and one of them – the fifth summit, eventually held in the Maldives in November 1990 – was twice deferred.

 

• Never before has a country boycotted the summit with a public statement as categorical as the one made by the Indian foreign ministry on Tuesday evening.

 

• Pakistan has termed the boycott decision as "unfortunate". The US has also said that it was pressurising Pakistan to act against terror safe havens within its borders.

  Prime Minister Modi has said that India would revisit the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty that calls for sharing of the waters of the six rivers of the Indus basin with Pakistan while indicating that the most favoured nation (MFN) trade status granted to the neighbour in 1996 might be revoked.