Current Affairs Lec 2 Regional Organizations SAARC Uzair 1

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SAARC: South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

Outline:
 Overview
 History
 Objectives and Regional integration spirit
 Organizational structure and initiatives
 Performance of SAARC
 Poverty Alleviation and Trade in South Asian (Role of SAARC)
 Remedies for reinvigorating SAARC

Overview:
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established with the
signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. SAARC comprises of eight
Member States: Afghanistan (2007), Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka. The Secretariat of the Association was set up in Kathmandu on 17 January 1987.
History:
The first concrete proposal for establishing a framework for regional cooperation in South Asia
was made by the late president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman, on May 2, 1980. While the
Bangladesh proposal was promptly endorsed by Nepal, SriLanka, the Maldives and Bhutan, India
and Pakistan were skeptical initially. India’s main concern was the proposal’s reference to the
security matters in South Asia. Indian policy-makers also feared that Ziaur Rahman’s proposal for
a regional organization might provide an opportunity for new smaller neighbours to regionalize all
bilateral issues and to join with each other to gang up against India. Pakistan assumed that it might
be an Indian strategy to organize the other South Asian countries against Pakistan and ensure a
regional market for Indian products, thereby consolidating and further strengthening India’s
economic dominance in the region. However, after a series of quiet diplomatic consultations
between South Asian foreign ministers at the UN headquarters in New York from August to
September 1980, it was agreed that Bangladesh would prepare the draft of a working paper for
discussion among the foreign secretaries of South Asian countries.
The new Bangladesh draft paper, sensitive to India’s and Pakistan’s concerns, dropped all
references to security matters and suggested only non-political and non-controversial areas for
cooperation. Between 1980 and 1983, four meetings at the foreign secretary level (April 21-23,
1981, Colombo; November 2-4, 1981, Kathmandu; August 7-8, 1982, Islamabad; March 28-30,
1983, Dhaka) took place to establish the principles of organization and identify areas for
cooperation. After three years of preparatory discussions at the official level, the focus of
discussion shifted to the political level in 1983.
The first South Asian foreign ministers’ conference was held in New Delhi from August 1-3, 1983,
where the Integrated Programme of Action (IPA) on mutually agreed areas of cooperation (i.e.,
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agriculture, rural development, telecommunications, meteorology, health and population control,

transport, sports, arts and culture, postal services and scientific and technical cooperation) was
launched. The foreign ministers at this conference also adopted a Declaration on Regional
Cooperation, formally beginning an organization known as South Asian Regional Cooperation
(SARC). Following the New Delhi meeting, three more meetings of the foreign ministers were
held at Male (July 10-11, 1984), Thimpu (May 13-14, 1985), and Dhaka (December 5, 1985) to
finalize details and determine a date and place for the first meeting of South Asian heads of state.
At the Dhaka foreign ministers’ meeting, a decision was taken to change the name of the
organization from South Asian Regional Cooperation (SARC) to South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The change in the acronym was based on the thinking that while
SARC refers to the process of South Asian Regional Cooperation, SAARC marks the
establishment of an association (organization) to promote and develop such cooperation. Finally,
the first summit meeting of the heads of state or government of South Asian countries was held at
Dhaka from December 7-8, 1985.
Headquarter: Khatmandu
Secretary General: Esala Weerakoon, Srilanka (Pak: Naem ul Hasan, Amjad B Sial)
Objectives:
SAARC aims to promote economic growth, social progress and cultural development within the
South Asia region. The objectives of SAARC, as defined in its charter, are as follows:

Promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and improve their quality of life
Accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region by
providing all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and realise their full potential
Promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia
Contribute to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s problems
Promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural,
technical and scientific fields
Strengthen co-operation with other developing countries
Strengthen co-operation among themselves in international forms on matters of common
interest; and
Cooperate with international and regional organization with similar aims and purposes.
Significant initiatives by SAARC:
SAPTA: SAARC Preferential Trading Agreement
SAFTA: South Asian Free Trade Area
Poverty Alleviation and Trade in South Asia under the banner of SAARC:
Poverty Alleviation
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Under this area of cooperation, there are following mechanisms:

i. Ministerial Meeting
ii. Senior Officials Meeting
iii. Inter-governmental Expert Group Meeting
Ministerial Forum is preceeded by Secretary Level Meeting. SAARC Plan of Action on Poverty
Alleviation had been developed and implemented. Annual reporting and assessing of the
progress is done through Ministerial Meeting. Secretariat has brought out publications called the
Regional Poverty Profile (RPP) until 2009-2010. Member States have decided to replace the
publication of the Regional Poverty Profile with the SAARC Development Report from 2017
onwards.

Obstacles in the way of SAARC’s progress:

Prioritizing National interests over regional cooperation
‘For the countries of Asia and Africa, nationalism is the main force of all efforts, though
nationalism is considered as an obsolete doctrine to many in the world’
President Sukarno
“Excessive nationalism among members is one of the major obstacles in SAARC’s slow
progress”
Pran Chopra
Fundamental Differences in the political systems of South Asian Member States
 Bhuttan Constitutional Monarchy
 Pakistan Long spells of Military rule
 Nepal Monarchy for years
“The political differences had deep negative impact on the political will to realize the
economic cooperation and integration.”
Jehangir Ashraf Qazi
Contentious issues between member states
(Kahsmir Indo-pak, Water issues Bangladesh-India, boundary issues Nepal-India)
Indian hegemonic designs, mistrust and bad attitude towards the smaller states
Historic adversarial relationships and ancient enmity
Environment of mistrust between states and illegal activities to destabilize neighbors
“The fundamental difference that SAARC suffers from is trust deficit among member
states”
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Jehangir Ashraf Qazi

‘Member states must commit that they will not allow the soil of their homeland to be used
for the destruction of the sovereign integrity of the neighboring country’.
Sheikh Hasseena
Lack of political will of the leadership
Lack of functional capacity
Indirect interference of Foreign powers
Power Politics by global giants
Remedies for invigoration:
Prioritizing Regional Interest over National Interest
Following the Footsteps of European Union
Ensuring Political Will
Ensuring functional capacity
Not involving in power politics by global giants
Curbing interference and influence of Foreign Powers