China, Pakistan lead bid to replace SAARC with new regional bloc: Report

The proposed bloc, discussed at a Kunming trilateral, aims to boost trade and connectivity among willing SAARC members

Pakistan and China are in advanced talks to create a new regional organisation aimed at replacing the now-dormant South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), according to Pakistan daily The Express Tribune.

 

The idea gained momentum during a recent high-level trilateral meeting in Kunming, China, held on June 19, which included senior diplomats from Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh, the news report said.

Invitation to SAARC members, excluding India

The proposed organisation intends to bring together several former SAARC members. According to the Express Tribune report, the Kunming meeting’s ultimate aim was “to invite other South Asian countries, which were part of SAARC, to join the new grouping".

 

 

Countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Afghanistan are reportedly open to joining the proposed alliance.   

  Trade and connectivity at the core

Unlike SAARC, which was often stalled due to India-Pakistan tensions, the new grouping would prioritise economic cooperation, trade facilitation, and infrastructure development across the region. Diplomatic insiders say Islamabad and Beijing both “are convinced that a new organisation is the need of the hour for regional integration and connectivity", The Express Tribune reported.

SAARC’s decline and missed opportunities

SAARC is a regional bloc formed in 1985 to promote economic, technological, social, and cultural progress among South Asian nations, with a focus on collective self-reliance. The original member states include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan became the eighth member when it joined in 2007. SAARC is headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal.

 

SAARC has remained inactive for nearly a decade. Its last summit was scheduled for 2016 in Islamabad, but India refused to participate in the wake of escalating tensions. Bangladesh, then governed by pro-India leader Sheikh Hasina, also opted out of the summit, effectively stalling the process.

SAARC not progressing due to cross-border terrorism: Jaishankar

In October last year, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that the SAARC had failed to make progress in recent years due to one of its member states engaging in cross-border terrorism.

 

"At the moment, SAARC is not moving forward. We have not had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason, there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism, at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more," Jaishankar had said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

 

He further elaborated on the dilemma faced by the grouping, saying, "If you are all sitting together and cooperating, and at the same time this kind of terrorism goes on... it actually poses a challenge for us that do you ignore it and go ahead, and in which case you are normalising it, you are accepting it that this is a legitimate tool of statecraft."