There appears to be a deadlock over the admission of Afghanistan into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, with India and Bangladesh presenting contradictory views on the issue.
While Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed told reporters on Thursday evening that Afghanistan's application to become the 8th SAARC member had been welcomed by delegations and there was likely to be a consensus on it, Bangladesh gave a contrasting picture, stating that the SAARC constitution and logo would have to be changed if Kabul was to be admitted.
Bangladesh Additional Foreign Secretary Muniruzzaman categorically stated that there was no consensus on the Afghanistan issue.
This was the first time that SAARC was discussing the entry of a new member into the grouping.
Ahamed said he did not visualise any problem for Afghanistan to get SAARC membership.
"Some modalities have to be gone through, but we should be in a position to welcome Afghanistan as a full member at the 14th SAARC summit in India," he said.
India and Pakistan strongly pleaded Afghanistan's case at the meetings of the programming and standing committees.
However, Bangladesh was lukewarm in its response to the proposal.
Dhaka is not in favour of full membership to Afghanistan and instead supports observer status to it, informed sources said.
When confronted with Dhaka's assertions on the issue, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said, "As far as I am concerned there was no opposition to Afghanistan's entry at the committee meetings. Certain modalities have to devised, but this cannot be construed as opposition."
On China's request to have a sort of association with SAARC, Ahamed said, "We are agreeable to responding positively to China's desire to seek a cooperative relationship with SAARC. An appropriate mechanism is under discussion."
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