A.Rahman
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US wants to join Saarc
DHAKA (updated on: March 30, 2006, 17:41 PST): The United States wants to join the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) as an observer, Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said on Thursday.
The request was formally made by the visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John Gastright who arrived Dhaka on Thursday on a two-day visit.
"We support the US request to become an observer of the Saarc and hope all other members of the forum also welcome it," Khan told reporters after a meeting with Gastright.
Earlier South Korea also made a similar request for Saarc observer status, foreign ministry officials said.
Saarc was formed in 1985, but its aim of bringing regional prosperity through co-operation has failed to get off the ground.
It has taken few multilateral initiatives and many of its summits have been postponed, sometimes for years, because of strife within nations or between them.
Bangladesh, the current chair of the grouping, will host a meeting of the Saarc Standing Committee, made up of the foreign secretaries of the member states, to finalise the terms and conditions for the observers, the officials said.
Gastright also discussed bilateral issues including co-operation in combating terrorism and asked Bangladesh "to do more" in curbing domestic extremism, they said.
Saarc groups Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
During the 13th Saarc summit in Dhaka in November last year, the new membership was granted to Afghanistan and observer status to China and Japan.
Afghanistan would be formally integrated to the grouping later this year, officials said.
Copyright Reuters, 2006
US wants to join Saarc
DHAKA (updated on: March 30, 2006, 17:41 PST): The United States wants to join the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) as an observer, Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said on Thursday.
The request was formally made by the visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John Gastright who arrived Dhaka on Thursday on a two-day visit.
"We support the US request to become an observer of the Saarc and hope all other members of the forum also welcome it," Khan told reporters after a meeting with Gastright.
Earlier South Korea also made a similar request for Saarc observer status, foreign ministry officials said.
Saarc was formed in 1985, but its aim of bringing regional prosperity through co-operation has failed to get off the ground.
It has taken few multilateral initiatives and many of its summits have been postponed, sometimes for years, because of strife within nations or between them.
Bangladesh, the current chair of the grouping, will host a meeting of the Saarc Standing Committee, made up of the foreign secretaries of the member states, to finalise the terms and conditions for the observers, the officials said.
Gastright also discussed bilateral issues including co-operation in combating terrorism and asked Bangladesh "to do more" in curbing domestic extremism, they said.
Saarc groups Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
During the 13th Saarc summit in Dhaka in November last year, the new membership was granted to Afghanistan and observer status to China and Japan.
Afghanistan would be formally integrated to the grouping later this year, officials said.
Copyright Reuters, 2006
-i dont know whats al;l the fuss abt SAARC and US joining it. U cant compare a dead SAARC to a lively and active NATO. 
