SAARC Kathmandu Declaration 2014
“Deeper Integration for Peace and
Prosperity”
The President of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan His Excellency Mohammad Ashraf Ghani; the Prime
Minister of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina;
the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan His Excellency Tshering Tobgay; the
Prime Minister of the Republic of India His Excellency Narendra Modi; the
President of the Republic of the Maldives His Excellency Abdulla Yameen Abdul
Gayoom; the Prime Minister of Nepal Right Honourable Sushil Koirala; the Prime
Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz
Sharif; and the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka His
Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa;
Having met at the Eighteenth Summit
meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) held in
Kathmandu, Nepal on November 26-27, 2014;
Reaffirming their commitment to the
principles and objectives of SAARC for ensuring the welfare and quality of life
of the peoples of South Asia;
Recognizing that after nearly
thirty years of its existence, it is time to reinvigorate SAARC’s regional
cooperation and revitalize SAARC as an effective vehicle to fulfill the
developmental aspirations of the peoples of South Asia;
Determined to deepen regional
integration for peace and prosperity by promoting mutual trust, amity,
understanding, cooperation and partnership;
Declared as follows:
Regional cooperation
1. The Heads of State or
Government expressed their strong determination to deepen regional integration
for peace, stability and prosperity in South Asia by intensifying cooperation, inter
alia, in trade, investment, finance, energy, security, infrastructure,
connectivity and culture; and implementing projects, programmes and activities
in a prioritized, result-oriented and time-bound manner.
South Asian Economic Union (SAEU)
2. The Leaders renewed
their commitment to achieve South Asian Economic Union (SAEU) in a phased and
planned manner through a Free Trade Area, a Customs Union, a Common Market, and
a Common Economic and Monetary Union.
3. The Leaders
acknowledged that SAARC Member States, particularly the Least Developed and
Landlocked Member States, face structural constraints and challenges that
result in their weak productive capacity affecting their competitiveness in
external trade due to, among others, high trade and transit cost. They
committed to enhance support to the Least Developed and Landlocked Member
States in their development efforts, with a view to ensuring equitable benefits
of free trade arrangements. In this context, they agreed to effectively
implement the existing preferential facilities under SAFTA and SATIS.
SAFTA and Trade Facilitation
4. Directed SAFTA
Ministerial Council and SAFTA Committee of Experts to accelerate free trade in
goods and services in the region putting into operation simplified and
transparent rules of origin; implementation of trade facilitation measures;
harmonization of standards relating to Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and
sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures; harmonized, streamlined and simplified
customs procedures; elimination of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers; and
smooth and efficient transit and transport facilities. They also called
for early operationalization of SATIS by finalizing the schedule of
commitments.
5. They called for
timely and comprehensive reforms of the global economic and financial
architecture to make it inclusive and responsive to the needs of Least
Developed, Land-locked, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
6. They reaffirmed that
SIDS would require special attention in view of their unique circumstances and
particular vulnerabilities in realization of sustainable development.
SAARC Development Fund
7. They agreed to
strengthen the Social Window of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) and
operationalize its Economic Window and Infrastructure Window at the earliest
for effective implementation of regional and sub-regional projects. In that
context, they stressed on expeditious development of projects under SDF
addressing the livelihood issues of the peoples of the region. They agreed to
expand the Governing Board of SDF by including a representative of the National
Focal Point of the Member States.
Connectivity
8. The Heads of State or
Government welcomed the significant progress towards finalization of the SAARC
Motor Vehicles Agreement and SAARC Regional Railways Agreement and agreed to
hold a Meeting of the Transport Ministers within three months in order to finalize
the Agreements for approval. They renewed their commitment to
substantially enhance regional connectivity in a seamless manner through
building and upgrading roads, railways, waterways infrastructure, energy grids,
communications and air links to ensure smooth cross-border flow of goods,
services, capital, technology and people. The leaders emphasized the need for
linking South Asia with contiguous regions, including Central Asia, and
beyond by all modes of connectivity and directed relevant authorities to
initiate national, regional and sub regional measures and necessary
arrangements.
Energy
9. The Leaders directed
the relevant SAARC bodies and mechanisms to identify regional and sub-regional
projects in the area of power generation, transmission and power trade,
including hydropower, natural gas, solar, wind and bio-fuel, and implement them
with high priority with a view to meeting the increasing demand for power in
the region. The Leaders welcomed the signing of the SAARC Framework
Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity).
Poverty Alleviation
10. The Leaders
reiterated their strong commitment to free South Asia from poverty and directed
the Ministerial and Secretary-level mechanisms on poverty alleviation to review
the progress and revisit the SAARC Plan of Action and its effective
implementation, also taking into account the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
11. They recognized the
potential of cooperatives in achieving inclusive, broad-based and sustainable
economic growth and development, and called for sharing of experiences,
expertise and best practices in this sector.
Post-2015 Development Goals
12. The Leaders
recognized that the Post-2015 Development Agenda, following its adoption at the
UN, would present opportunities to compliment national and regional efforts on
sustainable development. They directed to initiate an Inter-Governmental
process to appropriately contextualize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
at the regional level.
Agriculture and Food Security
13. The Heads of State or
Government agreed to increase investment, promote research and development,
facilitate technical cooperation and apply innovative, appropriate and reliable
technologies in the agriculture sector for enhancing productivity to ensure
food and nutritional security in the region. They also underscored the
importance of promoting sustainable agriculture. The Leaders directed to
eliminate the threshold criteria from the SAARC Food Bank Agreement so as to
enable the Member States to avail food grains, during both emergency and normal
time food difficulty. The Leaders urged for early ratification of the SAARC
Seed Bank Agreement and directed to constitute the Seed Bank Board, pending
completion of ratification by all Member States. The Leaders also directed the
relevant SAARC bodies to finalize the establishment of Regional Vaccine Bank
and Regional Livestock Gene Bank.
Environment
14. They directed the
relevant bodies/mechanisms for effective implementation of SAARC Agreement on
Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, SAARC Convention on Cooperation on
Environment and Thimphu Statement on Climate Change, including taking into
account the existential threats posed by climate change to some SAARC Member
States. They welcomed the decision to establish the SAARC Environment and
Disaster Management Centre. The Leaders underlined the urgency for the global
community to arrive at a Protocol, another legal instrument, or an agreed
outcome with legal force applicable to all by the end of 2015, based on the
principles of Common but Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR), Respective
Capabilities and Equity under the UNFCCC.
Blue Economy
15. They recognized the
manifold contributions of ocean-based Blue Economy in the SAARC Region and the
need for collaboration and partnership in this area.
Health
16. The Leaders
recognized the importance of achieving universal health coverage (UHC),
improving health regulatory systems, preparedness for emerging and remerging
diseases, and the challenges posed by anti-microbial resistance and
non-communicable diseases. They endorsed the Male’ Resolution on Regional
Health Issues adopted at the Fourth Meeting of the SAARC Health Ministers. They
urged to continue the remarkable progress by SAARC countries in the last decade
in response to AIDS with the aim to end AIDS epidemic in the region by 2030.
They also directed to complete all necessary processes for upgrading the SAARC
TB Reference Laboratory at SAARC TB and HIV/AIDS Centre (STAC), Kathmandu to
Supra-national Reference Laboratory with necessary funding from SDF.
Education
17. The Heads of State or
Government expressed their resolve to eliminating illiteracy from the region in
line with the global goal of education for all and ensuring quality education
in all institutions by reforming curricula, teaching methods and evaluation
systems adequately supported by physical, technical and other facilities. The
leaders agreed to promote regional cooperation in the field of vocational
education and training. They directed their Education Ministers to develop a
Regional Strategy for Enhancing the Quality of Education in order to raise the
standards of South Asian educational institutions in order to better serve the
youth in the region. The Leaders welcomed the progress with regard to the South
Asian University.
Youth
18. They emphasized the
need for adopting appropriate national policies and programmes for utilizing
the youth force and their skills for economic and social development,
especially through the creation of productive self-employment opportunities.
The Leaders welcomed the declaration of July 15 as the World Youth Skills Day
at the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly and agreed to commemorate,
as appropriate, the said event by SAARC.
Women and Children
19. They directed the
relevant authorities to take effective measures for preventing the trafficking
in women and children and their exploitation.
Social Protection
20. The Leaders
acknowledged the special needs of the elderly, women, children,
differently-abled persons, unemployed persons, and persons working at hazardous
sites and agreed to develop and strengthen social protection for them and to
share best practices in this regard.
Migration
21. They also agreed to
collaborate and cooperate on safe, orderly and responsible management of labour
migration from South Asia to ensure safety, security and wellbeing of their
migrant workers in the destination countries outside the region.
Science and Technology
22. The Leaders agreed to
develop capacity of the Member States to apply space technology for
socio-economic development and the welfare of the peoples through experience
sharing among themselves. In this context, they welcomed the offer of India to
develop and launch a satellite dedicated to SAARC Countries.
Telecommunication
23. The Leaders directed
for collaboration and engagement among public authorities and private
stakeholders in the Member States to lower telephone tariff rates for
facilitating greater contacts among the people of the region and called for
rationalization of the tariff structures.
Tourism
24. The Leaders expressed
their resolve for making South Asia an attractive common tourist destination in
a sustainable manner. They directed relevant bodies to effectively implement
SAARC Action Plan on Tourism (2006) particularly through initiating appropriate
public-private collaboration. They also called for effective and full
implementation of their existing decision to charge nationals of SAARC Member
States fees for entry into archaeological and heritage sites as applicable to
their own nationals.
Culture
25. They directed to
effectively implement the SAARC Agenda for Culture and agreed to take measures
to preserve and restitute the South Asian cultural property and create a SAARC
heritage list together with the operational guidelines. They declared
the year 2016 as the SAARC Year of Cultural Heritage and tasked the relevant
bodies to develop an action plan for its success. They also agreed to
develop a cultural trail linking major Buddhist historical sites in the region.
The Leaders further agreed to facilitate access of persons visiting prominent
and holy sites of Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and all other major religions
in South Asia.
Media
26. The Leaders,
recognizing the reach and influence of media, urged both public and private
media to share responsibility in the efforts towards promoting understanding
and cohesiveness of the SAARC Member States and their peoples.
Combating Terrorism and trans-national
Crimes
27.
The Leaders unequivocally condemned terrorism and violent extremism in
all its forms and manifestations and underlined the need for effective
cooperation among the Member States to combat them. They directed
respective authorities to ensure full and effective implementation of the SAARC
Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and its Additional Protocol,
including through enacting necessary legislations at the national level to root
out terrorism. They reiterated their call for an early conclusion of a UN
Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. They agreed to take
effective measures to combat illicit trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic
substances, arms smuggling, money laundering, counterfeit currency and other transnational
crimes. They also agreed to establish a cyber crime monitoring desk.
Governance
28. They reiterated their
strong commitment to ensure good governance for sustainable development by
promoting accountability, transparency, the rule of law and people’s
participation at all levels of governance.
29. The Leaders, while
expressing satisfaction over steady progress in democratization in South Asia,
committed to further promote and institutionalize peace, stability, democracy
and development as the common aspirations of the peoples of South Asia. In this
context, they agreed on the need for cooperation and collaboration within SAARC
on issues of common interest and concern to Member States.
Strengthening SAARC processes
30. The Heads of State or
Government acknowledged the need to enhance the visibility and stature of SAARC
in international fora by, inter alia, forging common positions on
issues of mutual interest and seeking group recognition in various multilateral
institutions.
31. The Leaders directed
all SAARC bodies, including the Council of Ministers, sectoral Ministerial,
other bodies and institutions to develop outcome-oriented policies, programmes,
projects, and activities. The Leaders directed rationalization of the
work of the SAARC mechanisms, which could be reviewed
inter-governmentally every three years by a regular session of the Standing
Committee with a view to evaluate performance, achievements and constraints.
32. The Leaders agreed to
enhance the role of the Secretariat, commensurate with the objectives of SAARC,
its areas of cooperation as well as the decisions and agreements reached in the
past. They committed to enhance the institutional capacity of the SAARC Secretariat,
in keeping with emerging realities, to enable it to fulfill the
responsibilities entrusted to it, in an effective and efficient manner.
33. The Leaders expressed
satisfaction on the decision to rationalize the number and activities of SAARC
Regional Centers through their selective closure and merger. They
reiterated their resolve to make the remaining SAARC Regional Centres and
specialized institutions efficient, effective and result-oriented and directed
these institutions to initiate programmes and projects that produce tangible
outcomes.
34. They agreed to hold
henceforth the meetings of the SAARC Summit every two years or earlier, if
necessary, the Council of Ministers once a year, the Standing Committee at
least once a year, and the Programming Committee at least twice a year. They
also agreed to make the Programming Committee a Charter body of SAARC.
SAARC Observers
35. They welcomed the
participation of Observers from Australia, the People’s Republic of China, the
Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mauritius, the Union of
Myanmar, the United States of America, and the European Union at the Summit. In
furtherance of earlier decisions on establishing dialogue partnership with
States outside the region, the Leaders appreciated the Study undertaken by the
SAARC Secretariat to review and analyze the engagement with the existing
Observers to establish dialogue partnership. The Leaders directed the
Programming Committee to engage the SAARC Observers into productive,
demand-driven and objective project based cooperation in priority areas as
identified by the Member States.
Nineteenth Summit
36. The Leaders welcomed
the offer of the Government of Islamic Republic of Pakistan to host the
Nineteenth Summit of SAARC.
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