Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist September 2019 | Page 19

SPECIAL REPORT
India-SICA Trade Cooperation
BY Dr. Aprajita Kashyap*
T
he Central American Integration System (SICA),
a small group of countries of Central America was
instituted in 1991 with the purpose to revive the
formal structure for regional integration in Central America.
Comprising of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama as full members and the
Dominican Republic as the Associate Member, the physical
and demographical extent of member states comprise a very
small percentage of the world parameters. The signing of
the Protocol to the Charter of the Organization of Central
American States (ODECA) or the Tegucigalpa Protocol,
that reformed the ODECA Charter that was the originally
signed treaty in 1951, brought SICA into force in 1993 with
its headquarters in the Republic of El Salvador. The intention
of the integration initiative was to deepen and consolidate
democracy by strengthening democratic institutions; to
usher in a new prototype of regional security; to accomplish
a uniform regional system of welfare and social justice,
and ultimately formulate an economic union bolstering the
Central American financial system. The main motive was to
portray the region as a strong economic bloc that could be
perceived as a sizeable force. The boost and impetus would
help SICA become an integral part of the international
economy.
India-SICA: Treading the Path Cautiously
As part of the objectives mentioned above, SICA is very
critical in establishing trade with all those countries that have
a deep-seated economic relation with the United States and
with other European nations. If the reach is extended to Asia,
specifically envisaging relations with India, deeper economic
cooperation and boosting ties between the two regions is
possible due to socio-cultural similarities. The chronological
trajectory of India-SICA relations is significant despite not
being too expansive.
The first multilateral effort depicting a clear intensification
of relationships with Central American region was witnessed
at the time when India began creating initial linkages with
the regional block SICA in 2004. As part of the open-arm
policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean, India
played a generous host to the eighteen-member SICA
delegation that had visited India in February 2004 and was
proficiently led by the then Foreign Minister of El Salvador,
besides having on board the Secretary-General of SICA
Mr. Oscar Santamaria. The outcome of the deliberations
was a declaration that put in place the Establishment of a
Mechanism for Political Cooperation and Dialogue between
SICA and India. For lending credibility, the declaration was
signed by the secretary-general of SICA and by the then
External Affairs Minister Mr. Yashwant Sinha for India. This
visit was a pathbreaker in foreign relations between India and
Latin America and the Caribbean due to the fact that it was a
debut for any Ministerial and high-level representations sent
by Central America to India. The message that was imparted
by SICA was of increased efforts towards promoting linkages
with India cutting across the hitherto obstacles posed by
geographical distance and linguistic barriers.
The second round of concerted energies towards co-
operation was witnessed in 2008 when the Central American
countries called for enhanced yet focussed economic
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida • 19