UN General Assembly
1996

restored to these troubled regions. In our own region, South Asia, we have recorded progress in our efforts at regional cooperation. We celebrated the tenth anniversary of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) last December, heralded by the coming into force of the South Asian Preferential Trade Arrangement. SAARC has set itself the goal of achieving a South Asian free-trade area by the early years of the new century. The private sectors of our region are engaged in close cooperation. We remain deeply committed to our abiding concern of alleviating, if not eradicating, poverty in our countries within a realistic time-frame. Sri Lanka has turned increasingly towards promoting economic cooperation with countries in the Asia-Pacific region with which we identify closely. We see regional cooperation as a source of political stability as well as mutual economic benefit. We have recently become a partner in the Indian Ocean rim initiative. We have applied for membership of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. We also expect that, when the required ratifications are completed, the Indian Ocean