Sarkozy and Hu bury hatchet in Beijing talks

South Asian leaders admit to collective failures
Thimphu (AFP) April 28, 2010 - South Asian leaders admitted Wednesday a collective failure to develop their conflict-ridden region and to forge a united front against the threats of climate change and terrorism. Opening a summit of the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Bhutan, the host nation's Prime Minister Jigme Thinley, said it was time for the bloc to take a long, critical look at itself. In the 25 years since it was formed to encourage development and raise the living standards of a region that is home to one-fifth of humanity, "SAARC's journey has not been one of outstanding success", Thinley said. "We are losing focus," he added, citing squabbles and tensions between the bloc's member states that had prevented implementation of its numerous, but ultimately toothless, commitments to change. "Fractious and quarrelsome neighbours do not make a prosperous community," he said.

SAARC, founded in 1985, groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Critics have blamed its failure to exploit the region's common potential on the long and bitter rivalry between its two most powerful members, India and Pakistan, which has often hijacked the bloc's agenda. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since the subcontinent's 1947 partition and remain at loggerheads over the region of Kashmir. They are also locked in a struggle for influence in Afghanistan, which joined SAARC in 2007. The Indian and Pakistani prime ministers, Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani, both attended the summit, which comes at a time when their countries are, once again, barely on speaking terms. A meeting between the two leaders has been scheduled for Thursday. Addressing the regional gathering, Singh acknowledged that SAARC had fallen short of its founding aspirations.

"In looking back at these two-and-a-half decades we can claim the glass is half full, and compliment ourselves, or we can admit the glass is half empty and challenge ourselves," he said. "Declarations at summits and official level meetings do not amount to regional cooperation or integration," he added. The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is hosting the summit for the first time and has put the focus on climate change, which is of special concern to SAARC members like Bangladesh and The Maldives, both threatened by rising sea levels. "The capacity of the planet to sustain life is fast diminishing ... (and) it is the poor who suffer most," Thinley said. "We need to act in concert." Pakistan's prime minister echoed the need for some "dispassionate reflection" on SAARC's record to date. "For many years, real progress remained stalled, due in part to hesitancy born from historical legacies, differences and disputes," Gilani said. Highlighting the "toxic brew" of terrorist activity across the region, he said the only effective solution was to fight it "individually and collectively". President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, which accuses Islamabad of not doing enough to eliminate Taliban operatives based on Pakistani territory, warned that the "wildfire of terrorism" needed to be extinguished at its roots. "We will not succeed in our goals until all SAARC member states, without exception or reservation, commit not to shelter or train terrorist networks," Karzai said.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) April 28, 2010
France and China Wednesday pledged to draw a line under past tensions over Tibet and breathe new life into their relationship by working together on issues from global monetary policy to Iran.

President Nicolas Sarkozy and his host Hu Jintao made the comments following talks in Beijing that signalled they had moved past the Tibet row, which peaked when Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, in 2008.

"President Sarkozy's visit to China has opened a new page in Sino-French relations," Hu said in a joint media appearance with the French leader.

"We should hold close consultations and strengthen political coordination on the reform of the international monetary system" climate change and other major issues, state television quoted Hu saying in their closed-door talks.

The French leader, making his second state visit to China, told journalists the pair had held "in-depth discussions about the Iranian crisis and the G20" and also said the two sides would work together on global monetary reform.

The West has sought Chinese support for tough action on Tehran over its nuclear programme, which some suspect is a cover to develop atomic weapons, and the issue had been expected to be high on Sarkozy's agenda.

Beijing has been reluctant to punish Iran, a major trading partner and source of oil, but US Vice President Joe Biden said last week China would back new sanctions, predicting they could be agreed within days.

Sarkozy pledged France would work with China -- which has sought greater say for developing countries in world financial affairs -- for a new multipolar system when it assumes the rotating leadership of the G20 from November.

"We are going to prepare the French presidency of the G20 well in advance by thinking about a new multipolar monetary order," he told reporters in the Great Hall of the People.

"I believe there can be no resumption of economic growth without global stability, and global stability is not possible without the greater involvement of China" on the international stage, Sarkozy said.

He refrained from adding to pressure on China over the value of its currency, which critics including the United States say is kept artificially low to boost Chinese exports at the expense of those from other countries.

"France's belief is that it is totally unproductive to make accusations against one another. It is far more intelligent to prepare the necessary evolution of the monetary system in the 21st century," he said.

"We are going to think and work together."

Relations nose-dived in March 2008, just four months after Sarkozy's first state trip to China, when he expressed shock at the security crackdown in the Chinese-ruled region after protests there led to deadly violence.

A month later, the Chinese leadership was incensed when pro-Tibetan demonstrators booed and jostled the Olympic flame as it was carried through Paris on its way to the Beijing Games.

Tensions peaked with Sarkozy's December 2008 audience with the Dalai Lama -- whom Beijing accuses of seeking independence for his Tibetan homeland -- before easing when Sarkozy met Hu at a G20 summit last year.

Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, began the three-day visit on Wednesday with a brief stop in the ancient capital of Xi'an, where the couple visited the city's terracotta warriors.

The French leader, whose delegation includes several senior ministers, will also meet Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing before heading to Shanghai on Friday for the start of the World Expo, where he will inaugurate the French pavilion.

The French president will mix politics with sightseeing during the trip, with scheduled visits to the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs and the Forbidden City.

Agreements on education and a plan to support small businesses are to be signed during the visit, according to French officials.

Hu is scheduled to make a state visit to France later this year.

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