Kathmandu Declaration
Eighteenth SAARC Summit - Kathmandu, Nepal -
26-27 November 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.