In a sharp dig at Pakistan, which finally announced its contribution of three million dollars to the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation(SAARC)Emergency Covid-19 Fund but maintained that it should be administered through the SAARC Secretariat, India on Friday said the degree of seriousness of each nation can be gauged their behaviour. New Delhi response came as Pakistan is trying to negate India’s efforts to jointly fight the pandemic in South Asian region.
In fact, Pakistan also did not take part in the SAARC trade video conference on Wednesday and later pledged the contribution of three billion dollars. In response to queries on Pakistan promising to pool in this amount proposed to be used through the SAARC Secretariat in accordance with the SAARC Charter, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said "It is for each SAARC Member State to decide on the timing, manner and implementation of their SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund commitments.”
He also said “Where India is concerned, the commitment made by the Prime Minister is today in an advanced stage of implementation. Assistance in material and services has been extended to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. These SAARC countries have also made early commitments to the Fund. The degree of seriousness of each nation can be gauged by their behavior."
The response came in the backdrop of India trying to move at a fast pace to jointly fight the coronavirus pandemic in the South Asian region and Pakistan trying to undermine New Delhi’s efforts in this regard by making effort to bring the coronavirus-related interactions under the formal SAARC umbrella by seeking to involve its secretariat. This attempt is to get free hand to block India's initiatives.
Red flagging this development, government sources had said here on Thursday the activities undertaken by the SSARC countries in the recent days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held video conference with heads of all the states of this association were under extraordinary circumstances to deal with challenge. These endeavours were moving in a result-oriented manner without being bound by any procedural formalities which could prove to be constraints.
Sources said Pakistan's efforts to bring COVID-19 related interactions under the formal SAARC umbrella was an attempt to get free hand to block all initiatives and proposals by India by using the SAARC charter provisions and rules of procedure including application of principle of consensus for the drafting of agenda, outcome document, concurrence of all member states for each and every thing every step of the way.
Sources said keeping control of the activities that emerged from Modi's video conference of March 15 has helped India move much faster and without any hindrances. India had described these activities as being stand-alone and outside the "SAARC calendar of approved activities", they said.
"We regard the present activities as events under extraordinary Covid-19 circumstances focussed only to jointly dealing with the challenge in the SAARC region in a result-oriented way, without being bound by any procedural formalities that could prove to be constraints," a source said. Pakistan on Wednesday did not take part in SAARC trade officials discussion saying such activities could only be effective if spearheaded by the SAARC Secretariat.