China for 'Saarc Plus One' summit
Ann OnlineChina, continuing its relentless push for a larger footprint
in India's backyard, quietly approached some South Asian nations for
an annual summit modelled loosely as a "Saarc Plus One" fixture,
diplomatic sources said yesterday.
"China wants an annual summit with our eight members on the lines of
its Asean Plus One arrangement," a senior diplomat from one of Saarc's
smaller states told The Straits Times. "It is a move that annoys
India, and most of us are just sitting quiet because we do not want to
upset New Delhi."
Saarc, short for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation,
groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The group's 17th summit concluded in Addu, a
Maldivian atoll, yesterday.
While Saarc is host to a fifth of the world's population, it is
dominated by India, which has a population of 1.1 billion people and a
trillion-dollar economy.
However, China, which has an "all-weather relationship" with Pakistan,
India's South Asian rival, has been steadily raising its influence in
every country in the region, to New Delhi's discomfort.
Aside from being a generous aid-giver, China is involved in
infrastructure projects in the region, including building ports in
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. This week, timing it with the
Saarc summit, it opened a full-fledged embassy in tiny Maldives, a
nation whose foreign ministry and national museum buildings were built
for free by Beijing.
Five years ago, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan banded together to
press Saarc states to grant observer status to China. New Delhi then
quickly countered by pushing to bring the US, Australia and Japan into
the group as observers as well. It also helped midwife Afghanistan as
a full member of Saarc.
While the presence of nine observers, including the US and Japan,
diluted China's importance in Saarc, Beijing has been looking for ways
to gain a bigger voice in the grouping. For that reason, it may push
to be elevated from observer to become the first dialogue partner,
diplomatic sources said.
A senior official in the Saarc secretariat said China was expected to
outline some of its ideas to joining the body yesterday.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=209813
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