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New S Asian grouping likely to be floated

By M Anwarul Haq
Foreign ministers of Bangladesh. India. Nepal and Bhutan are likely to endorse the formation of a new South Asian grouping styled South Asian Growth Quadgrangle (SAGQ), diplomatic sources said.
The new regional bloc, if launched, will forsake the earlier concept of a sub-regional grouping within the SAARC. the sources added.
The four foreign ministers may meet in New Delhi on the sidelines of the 12th foreign ministers' meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to be held there on April 7 and 8.
Foreign Secretary Farooq Sobhan. talking over telephone yesterday, said that the Kathmandu deliberations had considered identifying common areas for the proposed cooperation among the four countries under the aegis of the "South Asian Growth Quadrangle."
Earlier, he told AFP and PT1 in Kathmandu at the end of the
one-day foreign secretaries' meeting on April 2 that since Pakistan had reservation about the grouping, ' the quadrilateral cooperation is to be pursued outside the framework of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation."
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury, when asked by The Daily Star if the four countries are forming a new bloc outside SAARC. said. "It is both separate and not separate. It depends on who is looking at it and with what perception."
Nepal's Ambassador to Bangladesh Lok Bahadur Shrestha, talking to The Daily Star yesterday, hinted at the possibility of the South Asian Growth Quadrangle emerging as a separate organisation. He said that when the approach paper on sub-regional grouping was presented by Nepal at the SAARC foreign ministers' meting in New Delhi, one country had given objection. Although
Article 7 of the SAARC Charter allows the formation of standing committees by two or more countries, all major decisions under the charter had to be taken unanimously. "If one country objects, we may have to make cooperative efforts under a new arrangement," he added.
The ambassador, however, emphasised that "SAARC is also important for us. We are entering a new phase."
Nepal has been made overall coordinator for the first phase of the South Asian Growth Quadrangle, at the Kathmandu meeting. The first phase involving feasibility studies on six areas of cooperation is due to be completed with one year.
The areas of cooperation are multimodel transportation, energy. water harnessing, environment. investment and tourism.
The Kathmandu meeting dwelt on the approach paper prepared by Nepal.