Cooperation is the key to growth in South Asia, says SAARC members

New Delhi, Dec. 14 (ANI): Peace and economic objective can be achieved through cooperation in South Asia. In a recently held event titled 'SAARC Charter Day', SAARC member countries highlighted the core issues in the South Asian region. Students from South Asian region including Afghanistan also participated in the event.

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The 'SAARC Charter Day' held in Delhi's South Asian University brought together South Asian countries to discuss and highlight ways to enhance economic cooperation and peace in SAARC.

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The discussion saw the participation of noted academicians from the South Asian region like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

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Students from South Asian region including Afghanistan actively participated in the event.

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At the conference, the panelists opined that the member nations needed to explore and take advantage of the enormous commonality in the South Asian region for growth and address major challenges in the region.

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"The objective of the conference was to remind ourselves what we were promising let say long time ago 1985 and what are the some of the achievements and what are some of the issue and challenges that we need to confront in the future and what should be done. So basically it is a review of SAARC charter and cooperation focusing more on economic integration but also highlighting peace and prosperity issues of the region", said Shankar Sharma, Nepal's Planning Commission and former ambassador to the USA.

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Rustam Ali, a student, said if SAARC activities were stronger and honest, not only Afghanistan, but all the countries in the region would gain from this cooperation.

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"Afghanistan can play a very good and significant role in connecting South Asia to Central Asia or South Asia to the West Asia so that's what Afghanistan has its fortune in the future," said Rustam Ali Seerat an Afghan student of International Relations at the South Asian University, Delhi.

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Decades of war has crippled the economic growth in Afghanistan. Annually India offers thousands of scholarships to Afghan students for higher education.

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"Once Afghanistan solves the security problems then Afghanistan can economically improve very well and the main issue is terrorism and insecurity which is SAARC as I told you before if SAARC members play honestly the insecurity and terrorism can be dealt very soon," said Hussain Ali Dornam an Afghan student of M.A. Economics at the South Asian University, Delhi.

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Delhi's South Asian University is serving as a platform for the growth of future generation in the SAARC region.