JOIN US Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterparts in India’s five neighbours celebrated the launch of the South Asia satellite on Friday — sending out a tacit but clear message to spoilsport Pakistan.
“The South Asia satellite demonstrated that our collective choices for our citizens will bring us together for cooperation, not conflict; development, not destruction; and prosperity not poverty,” Modi said, as he was joined by almost all Saarc leaders, except Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
A few weeks after taking over the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi, Modi had proposed that India would share the benefits of its space technology with its neighbours and build and launch a satellite for the use of all other members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).
Though all the other members of the regional bloc had accepted New Delhi’s offer to build the Saarc satellite, Pakistan had rejected it.
This prompted the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to rename it as the “South Asia satellite”.
Pakistan not only rejected India’s Saarc satellite offer, but also blocked several other initiatives by the eight-nation bloc for rail and road connectivity within the region.
India responded by promoting several subregional initiatives for connectivity and cooperation with other Saarc member nations, thus isolating Pakistan.
“This launch tells us that even the sky is not the limit when it comes to regional cooperation,” said Modi.
The South Asia communication satellite will provide Ku-band broadcasting and telecommunication services.
India has established the required ground station facility in New Delhi to enable test television transmission in the national languages of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The transmission can be viewed by citizens of these nations by using commercially available off-the-shelf and set-top boxes, sources in New Delhi said.
After the satellite launch from Sriharikota, Modi was joined by Afghan President
M Ashraf Ghani, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Maldives President Abdulla Yameen.
They all congratulated and thanked the prime minister for dedicating the satellite to the common progress and prosperity of South Asia.