Welcome Afganistan, China and Japan.

Yesterday when i read the news of the inclusion of Afganistan as a member of SAARC and China and Japan getting observer status, i observed a change of mentality in the South-Asian governments. The poor group countries were the masters of finding excuses for not developing their state. They have never taken any remarkable step till date nor have solved any specific problem like Bhutanese Refugee problem, Kashir Issue, border issue between India and Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, India and Nepal etc. The first good step was the implementation of SAPTA long back in 1995 which is also not applied whole heartedly and it had lots of problems in implementing it. A good spirit was shown by moving forward with SAFTA first in 1998 and then in 2004. SAFTA will start its effect from 2006 while for the full implementaion we have to wait till 2016.
The percentage of intra-regional trade out of total trade remains below 10% even now while in progressive like EU, Asean and NAFTA are about 50%. The main problem seems to be rivalry between India and Pakistan but i have found an intellectual claiming that almost all the progressive steps are not free from the Bangladeshi complaint.
Today i feel that now we are more aware of the world status and are thinking more positively. This clearly is a good sign and it shows our confidence. May this movement take us much ahead. I welcome Afganistan, China and Japan in our group. Lets have a Pan-Asian unity with the merger of Asean and SAARC. The only way to have united and progressive world is to have integrated world. Lets move forward.