 It was an inescapable reality of the 10th summit meeting of South Asian nations in Colombo that it was preceded a few weeks earlier by nuclear tests carried out by India and Pakistan. Some critics of the tests quickly predicted a disastrous conflict in it. Others prophesied a premature demise of Sark's 13-year-old quest for economic cooperation. To any visitor to Colombo who witnessed the 10th meeting of Sark leaders in July 1998, any fears of a nuclear shadow over the region were going to be quickly allayed. Indeed, as we approach the end of the most violent century in human history and complete half a century of independence among the states of South Asia, there is a need to sift the realities from the political rhetoric or even frequent academic bias. The notion that there is some dramatic new situation is also wrong. This area has been nuclearized in the past. The whole region has been nuclearized. There has been nuclear weapon presence in our neighborhood. Pakistan itself had covert nuclear capability. Long before it had carried out these tests, there are a few elements such as the need to build confidence in the security field including confidence in areas which relate to nuclear weapon capability and we for our part are very keen that these should be discussed. 27 years have elapsed since India and Pakistan got sucked into a war which grew out of internal conflict and contradictions. This represents the longest period in the history of the subcontinent when its military forces have not been engaged in a war. The absence of war for a quarter-century or more has not translated itself into peace. In fact, the problem of mushrooming militant groups was becoming so insurmountable in South Asia that the SAARC leaders at their very first meeting in 1985 gave a top priority in their quest for regional cooperation. From India's Kashmir region in the north to Sri Lanka in the south, from north-eastern India to northwestern Pakistan. The debilitating trans-border militancy and domestic ethnic violence in South Asia takes not only a heavy toll of human life but is equally palpable in the drain it brings about on the region's meager economic resources. In most cases, there are no guaranteed methods or known cures to curb separatist violence. Looking through a purely economic prism, peace and security at home and political stability in the region remain the preconditions of SAARC's march into the 21st century. And for this reason alone, regional peace is no longer a matter of choice for South Asia but a vital necessity in the emerging global and geopolitical environment. At a time when all over the world countries are regrouping themselves on the basis of economic blocks, a collective endeavor to harness regional solutions for the socio-economic ills would go a long way in solving the problems of underdevelopment. This would provide it better leverage to bargain for more favorable terms abroad. More important, it would alter favorably SAARC's bargaining strength in the global economy. A fast-track transition to a South Asian free trade area SAFTA is today a pressing need. This is because all SAARC members, being members of the World Trade Organization have already committed themselves to a time-phase trade liberalization at the global level. The move for a higher interest SAARC trade has gained ground with a view to eventually increasing the percentage of South Asia's business with the rest of the world. South Asia's billion or more people are linked today not only by a common destiny vested in the 13-year-old venture called SAARC but their geographical contiguity is embellished by thousands of years of cultural affinity that reflects a sprawling mosaic of religions, languages and racial hues from medieval Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean to the ancient heritage of modern Pakistan.