SAARC prospects in South Asia Region

The 18th SAARC summit which was held in Kathmandu in November 27th with a tame joint declaration titled Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity.The 36-point declaration covered a whole gamut of issues ranging from poverty alleviation,education,healthcare and combating terror in media,telecom,tourism ,governance and blue economy.The Kathmandu summit took place after a gap of three years,largely delayed due to political shifts and turns within Nepal.Finally the dates were announced in August 2014,a few days before the cancellation of talks between India and Pakistan,two important member countries of SAARC.This development cast its shadow on the summit meeting.The developments that took place between these two two countries in the intervening period were far from encouraging.The pessimists held SAARC meeting time was doomed,while optimists hoped it would provide an opportunity for leaders of India and Pakistan to reestablish contact.Closer to the date,it seemed improbable that the two leaders would even have an informal meeting at the sidelines.It also surfaced that Pakistan would veto the proposals for intra-SAARC surface connectivity and energy cooperation,primarily because they were backed by India.Then there were talks of Nepal and Pakistan pushing for China’s membership of SAARC which raised the decibels of analysts in Indian side.Nepal’s denial for the Indian Prime Minister Modi proposed visit and public address in Nepal’s terai region was yet another dampener.All in all,the expectations from the summit were never so low.Amid such negative vibes,the summit took off in the most unambitious manner possible.While the leaders pledged their support to the process of regional engagement and emphasised on result-oriented endeavour,they raised specific issues relating to their own experience.Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stressed on multimodal physical connectivity between the territories and communities of the SAARC member states for ensuring overall peace,progress and stability across the South Asia.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani expressed his concerns about states embracing and sponsoring non-state actors and held that such strategies were counterproductive and had blowback effects.Nawaz Sharif,Pakistan PM,emphasised on the need for collective action to fight common challenges like poverty,disease,unemployment.

On the side,Indian Prime Minister Modi pointed out that there is need for countries living in close proximity to stay together.Expressing his desire to take every possible step to boost regional integration,Modi referred to India’s efforts to build special economic relationships with each of the SAARC member countries,including Pakistan.India’s launching of a SAARC satellite by 2016,Modi held that only through seamless connectivity,regional integration can become a reality and his priority was building infrastructure in the entire SAARC region.Prime Minister Modi held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit with every member states head except Pakistan.India and Pakistan was drifting away from each other,which might pose a grave challenge to smooth functioning of SAARC in future.As the 18th summit demonstrated,SAARC may not have been successful a regional organization as ASEAN and the EU,however,it still has a useful role to play in bringing the states of the region together and evolving concensus on issues of common conern.A region consisting states with shared history and culture,but also divided by historical legacies and political differences in a super state body like SAARC to provide a common platform where the leaders can meet regularly and build bridges with one another.This SAARC summit not have been very successful on many fronts,but that does not mean that the organization will continue to operate below its potential for ever.India’s proactive participation in recent years and its leadership role in pushing for greater connectivity and trade have induced fresh dynamism into the organization and if India can sustain its interests,SAARC will prove successful region organisation in South Asia.

By Anil Kumar Upadhyaya New Delhi-8/1/2015