The fortunes of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) have swung as fast and hard as the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan. So it is with the 12th SAARC Summit in Islamabad. At the lowest point in India’s relationship with its neighbour which, incidentally, was not so long ago Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee insisted that he would not go Islamabad if Pakistan did not stop cross-border terrorism. Today, with the intransigence on the part of India ending, the steps taken by the two countries towards building of confidence will indeed go a long way to improve relations. Past peace initiatives between India and Pakistan have often tended to fall by the wayside. Prime Minister Vajpayee’s momentous decision, therefore, to attend the SAARC Summit — delayed by a year of tensions which nearly brought India and Pakistan close to war over Kashmir — should be viewed in the proper perspective. Peace is of utmost importance for the development of the people of the region. India’s conciliatory gestures then have at least pushed out the rancour and animosity of the past half a century and ushered in new hopes not only for the SAARC movement but also towards lasting peace in South Asia. 

The feeling of optimism and hope which began when Prime Minister Vajpayee agreed to fly to Islamabad received a further boost with the announcement of the Saarc Secretariat that India and Pakistan had agreed to offer preferential market access to each other’s products under the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA). Indeed, economic issues will top the summit agenda in Islamabad next month, but no progress can be made if there is no push towards harmony and there is no determination to improve relations among member countries. The journey towards peace might be a long one, but it must be remembered that each long journey begins with one small step. If India and Pakistan are able to make that one small move, it will be one of the most important steps the two countries have ever taken. 

In step with peace, SAARC requires a big push not a gradual change. South Asia, with 23 percent of the world’s population, is the world’s poorest region but all the countries in the region have a dramatic concentration of wealth and power. It is in this backdrop, that the member-countries have to take a momentous decision: How to build a strong, prosperous and confident South Asia? .