"Despite several transformative potentials in the region, our achievement stands short of expectations," said Sushil Koirala in a speech at the closing ceremony. "We alone are responsible for shortcomings in the SAARC process." The leaders of the eight SAARC countries had expressed frustration with the slow pace of progress towards greater regional integration since the group first launched nearly three decades ago.
India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi made pointed references in his summit speech on Wednesday to the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai. He also held formal talks on the two-day summit's sidelines with every SAARC leader except Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Both sides said it was up to the other to request a meeting. The leaders only finalised the electricity pact on Thursday.
In a closing declaration, the summit members pledged to combat "terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms" and jumpstart "free trade in goods and services in the region". Cross-border trade among the eight SAARC nations - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - has grown from under $140 million in 2008 to $878 million in 2012. But it still accounts for less than five percent of total commerce in a region where many remain living in poverty.
Koirala said there was "no justification" for such deprivation in a region rich in natural resources. "Nothing is going to change because of speeches by Indian or Pakistani leaders - it's the same old game, there's a positive-sounding declaration followed by violence followed by a breakdown in talks," the executive chairman of Kathmandu's Nepal Centre for Contemporary Studies, Lok Raj Baral, told AFP. "Whether it concerns trade or terrorism, unless you translate statements into action, there is little point to holding the summit." The next SAARC summit will be held in Islamabad in 2016, Koirala said.