Kashmir governor seeks regional cooperation to fight terrorism

Governor of Kashmir, N N Vohra Wednesday emphasized the need for effective cooperation among regional countries to tackle terrorism and to create a peaceful environment to establish productive economic ties among them. He was inaugurating a four-day International Conference on “Globalization and Eurasia: Changes and Challenges” organized by the Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir. Asserting there was need to revive and strengthen the historical, cultural and economic links among the Euroasian countries to bring the benefits of globalization to regional nations, he said it would enable free flow of goods, services, expertise, technologies, finances and movement of nationals for promoting prosperity and well being of countries of this region. Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, the governor said the situation in the past decades in the neighbourhood had adversely impacted the development and economic growth of the state. He released a journal of the centre and proceedings of the two international conferences organized by it during 2007-08 and 2008-09. In his keynote address, former ambassador, Rajiv Sikri, gave an overview of the geo-political and economic scenario of Euroasia and future possibilities of putting in place strong economic cooperation in the region. He said the theme of the conference was relevant and timely asserting that bold, innovative and long-term initiatives were needed to engender greater economic cooperation in Euroasia, particularly in the globalized world. Meanwhile, Director of the centre, Prof G R Jan, briefed the audience on the history, evolution, activities and future action plan of the centre.