Oksana Antonenko, senior fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, said SCO was important because it offered a platform for Russia and China to develop partnership and to reconcile their interests. Moscow and Beijing consider the SCO as one of their foreign policy priorities.
ISLAMABAD: Intellectuals and scholars from Pakistan and abroad on Thursday said regional cooperation was important to bolster economic relations and benefit from each other’s experiences.
Speaking at a seminar on “Regional Cooperation in Asia – Options for Pakistan”, jointly organised by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and Hanns Seidel Foundation, Germany, they said that regional cooperation offered a win-win situation for all countries.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman and Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed said in this age of new regionalism driven primarily by energy and economy, Pakistan could provide the much-needed link to enhance the regional cooperation between East Asia, South Asia and Central Asia.
He also suggested that SAARC must adopt the ASEAN way of finding the solutions to stymied cooperation in South Asian Region. He said Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline was a manifestation of regional cooperation.
National Commission for Government Reforms Chairman and former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain focused on successful example of East Asia that had demonstrated the benefits of cooperation by creating economies of scale, scope and speed. “We need not to launch new regional organisations; instead, we can benefit from the existing institutional arrangements by working things more efficiently,” he said.
Dr Mavara Inayat, senior research fellow, Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad, said the national security interests of the core South Asian states – India and Pakistan, defined the parameters of cooperation in the region within the context of SAARC from 1985 onwards. “The inclusion of Afghanistan as a member would introduce another complex security factor in the already intricate South Asian regional cooperation phenomenon,” she said.
Former Foreign Secretary Niaz A. Naik said inclusion of Afghanistan as permanent member in SAARC led to construct a broad framework regarding terrorism, threat to security and stability in the region. He recommended having a close understanding of recently adopted SAARC Social Charter, which includes issues related to human rights, gender, education and poverty. He also proposed creation of a security organisation related to SAARC.
Prof Dr Sarfraz Khan from Area Study Centre for Russia, Central Asia and China, University of Peshawar, emphasised that the Central Asia and South Asian cooperation could be mutually beneficial for both regions.
Oksana Antonenko, senior fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, said SCO was important because it offered a platform for Russia and China to develop partnership and to reconcile their interests. Moscow and Beijing consider the SCO as one of their foreign policy priorities.
