South Asian Association For

Regional Cooperation
 Introduction
• The Asian Association for Regional
South
Cooperation
Asian (SAARC)
nations, foundedis inanDecember 1985 of South
and
dedicated to economic, organization
technological, social, and
cultural development emphasizing collective self-
reliance.
• The 11 stated areas of cooperation are agriculture;
education, culture, and sports; health, population, and
child welfare; the environment and meteorology;
rural development; tourism; science and
transport;
technology; communications
• The idea of regional political and economical
cooperation in South Asia was first coined in 1980
and the first summit held in Dhaka on 8 December in
1985 led to its official establishment by the
governments of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
• Afghanistan joined SAARC as an eighth member
state in April 2007, increasing members of SAARC
from seven to eight.
• Its secretariat is headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• SAARC comprises 3% of the world's area,
22.5% of the world's population and 4% (US
$3.35 trillion GDP) of the global economy, as
of 2020. It has total population of 1.75 billion.
 SAARC Secretariat
• The SAARC Secretariat is based in Kathmandu,
Nepal. It coordinates and monitors implementation of
activities, prepares for and services meetings, and
serves as a channel of communication between the
Association and its Member States as well as other
regional organisation.
• The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary General.
Amjad Hussain B. Sial is the current Secretary
General since March 2017. The Secretary General is
assisted by eight Directors from the Member SAARC
Secretariat and Member States observe 8th of
December as the SAARC Charter Day.
 OBJECTIVES OF SAARC
• Promoting the welfare of the people of South Asia
and to improve their quality of life.
• Accelerating economic growth, social progress and
cultural development in the region and to provide all
individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to
realize 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.
• Promoting active collaboration and mutual assistance
in the economic, social, cultural, technical and
scientific fields.
• Strengthening cooperation with other developing
countries.
• Strengthening cooperation among themselves in
international forums on matters of common interest
• Cooperation with international and regional
organizations with similar aim and
purpose.
 Principles of SAARC
The principles are as follows:
• Respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, political
equality and independence of all members states.
• Non-interference in the internal matters is one of its
objectives.
• Cooperation for mutual benefit.
• All decisions to be taken unanimously and need a quorum
of all eight members.
• All bilateral issues to be kept aside and only multilateral
issues to be discussed without being prejudiced by
bilateral issues.
 Future members
• China shown interest in joining SAARC. Pakistan &
has
Bangladesh support candidature. While India is
• Indonesia china’s
supported by Sri Lanka intends to become
opposing.
a
observer of SAARC.
• Myanmar has expressed it’s desire to become a full time
member of SAARC. Myanmar’s military regime officially
applied for full SAARC membership in May 2008. However,
the application is still being considered and the government is
currently restricted to observer status.
• Russia and Turkey intends to become observer.
• Iran because of it’s strong cultural, economic and political
relationships with Afghanistan and Pakistan and has expressed
its desire to become a member of the South Asian
 SAARC Preferential Trading
Arrangement (SAPTA)
• The Agreement on SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement
(SAPTA) was signed on 11 April 1993 to promote and sustain
mutual trade and economic cooperation within the SAARC
region through the exchange of concessions. The basic
principles underlying SAPTA are:
• Overall reciprocity of advantages.
• Trade reform.
• Preferential measures in favour of Least Developed
Contracting States.
• Inclusion of all products, manufactures and commodities in
their raw, semi-processed and processed forms.
 South Asian Free Trade Area
(SAFTA)
• The Agreement on the South Asian Free Trade Area
was reached at the 12th SAARC summit at
Islamabad, Pakistan. It creates a framework for the
creation of a free trade area covering 8 nation’s people
in the region. Zero customs duty on the trade of
practically all products in the region by the end of
2016.
• India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka decreased their duties
down to 20% in the first phase of the two-year period
ended 2007, and it was planned to bring the custom
duties to zero by 2016. (3 extra years for less
developed countries in both the cases)
 Why SAARC has failed to
achieve most of its
objectives(criticism)
• Policy of non-interference Article II clearly states,
“Cooperation within the framework of the
Association shall be based on non-interference in
the internal affairs of other States and mutual
benefit.” It strictly limits the member nation’s ability
to push an agenda if there is any opposition. The
biggest example of the stagnation was Kargil War
(1999) and Pulwana attack (2019) and its
consequences.
 Cont.…..
• SAARC could have taken a decisive step to
resolve the dispute. But it did not. It is one of the
numerous incidents of security violations across
the region. Political deadlock Despite several
promises to resolve the political differences
among the member states, those especially
between India and Pakistan continue and have
stalled progress on many projects including the
South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). If
operative, it would allow the free movement of
people, goods, services and ideas.
 Geopolitical equation matters
• Most of the decisions taken in SAARC depend more
on geopolitical equations rather than cooperation on
certain issues.
Example- India, tries to keep China away from the
organization by saying that the mere observer status of
China limits the scope of SAARC opportunities
India’s push for the full membership of Myanmar and
Iran who have observer status at present. One can easily
assume that the push is because of the rising oil demand
in India.
 Summit of SAARC
The 20th SAARC summit is the 20th meeting of the
heads of state of the eight SAARC countries which takes
place in Colombo in 2019. The 2020 SAARC Summit
(21st) will take place in Islamabad.
Pakistan is aggressively seeking support from smaller
South Asian nations to host the SAARC summit in
Islamabad. Sri Lanka and Nepal have already shown
support. But analysts doubt India will agree as it holds
Pakistan responsible for numerous terrorist activities.
 Conclusion
• The SAARC’s balance sheet of success is very
limited to adoption of several conventions like
SAARC regional conventions on suppressions of
terrorism, SAARC convention on narcotic drugs and
smuggling across boarders.
• There have also been breakthroughs in the form of
agreements forming SAFTA and SAPTA , but their
success at operational level is still expected.
• SAARC totally exclude political issues from its
summits, this is also one of its inherent weakness.
 References
• www.Saarc-sec.org
• http://www.saglobalaffairs.com/back-

issues/347-challenges-for-saarc.html
• www.pakistantimes.net/pt/detail.php?n
ewsId= 8311