Diplomats and foreign policy experts have suggested that Saarc nations and the Saarc Secretariat in Kathmandu should speak up against India’s trade embargo in Nepal as the country reels under an acute fuel crisis.
It is more relevant for Nepal, which chairs the regional
grouping this term and hosts the Saarc Secretariat in Kathmandu, to
raise the issue in international forums and tell the international
community about the supply constraints, they suggested.
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| Bangladeshi People organized a movement against Indian aggression over Nepal in Dhaka, Bangladesh. |
Former ambassadors to India Bhekh Bahadur Thapa and Lokraj Baral are also for raising the issue in regional as well as international platforms. “The relevancy of Saarc has ended,” said Thapa. “As the Saarc chair, Nepal should call a meeting of member nations and apprise them on the matter.” A diplomat to have served in the Saarc Secretariat said member nations should call an emergency meeting of their eight commerce and supplies ministers to discuss the blockade. The embargo is also against the spirit of South Asian Free Trade Agreement, said the diplomat, adding that Safta does not imagine a situation in which a member country imposes an embargo against another member.
