When Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria recently expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of resetting the derailed bilateral agenda, South Asia’s peace-loving constituency saw a glimmer of hope for the future of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) — the eight-nation regional grouping that holds the key to fostering peace and sustainable development in one of the world’s most impoverished regions.
With a new Pakistani civilian government taking over the reins of power, Bisaria felt there was a fresh window of opportunity waiting to be exploited, but only if New Delhi’s concerns were adequately addressed. And, considering the fact that, far from the bitter acrimony back home, military contingents from India and Pakistan jointly participated in an anti-terror drill — held under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s aegis — for the first time ever last month, there was indeed high expectations from the Indian government.
After all, nothing creates a more positive vibe in a tumultuous India-Pakistan relationship than the images of military personnel from both nations fighting shoulder-to-shoulder to recapture a town from terrorists, even if in a simulated environment, and senior commanders participating in a brainstorming session, exchanging valuable opinions on international and regional security scenarios and formulating possible strategies. It is in this context that Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan has, very rightly, pitched for the restoration of SAARC’s glory to hasten trade and regional connectivity, knowing full well that meaningful dialogue is difficult to initiate and even harder to sustain in a spoiler-driven and notoriously accident-prone bilateral relationship.
While the foreign ministers of SAARC member states, meeting on the 73rd UN General Assembly margins, reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to the organization’s process and furthering substantive cooperation, the stalemate over the scheduling of the 19th SAARC summit, however, remains unresolved. As Pakistan reiterated its readiness to host the crucial event anytime soon, India would do well to latch on to this opportunity for realizing the collective aspirations of 1.8 billion people. SAARC, one must not forget, is South Asia’s only multilateral organization and is too critical an instrument to be left ignored indefinitely.
While the foreign ministers of SAARC member states, meeting on the 73rd UN General Assembly margins, reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to the organization’s process and furthering substantive cooperation, the stalemate over the scheduling of the 19th SAARC summit, however, remains unresolved.
Seema Sengupta
Besides, SAARC has an intrinsic peace-building element woven into its structure, which has helped Indo-Pakistani reconciliation on many occasions in the past, contrary to the general belief that it has been no more than a mere talk shop. As Amjad Sial, the organization’s secretary general, told me, SAARC is the manifestation of South Asian nations’ determination to work together for ushering regional peace, stability, amity and progress, with strict adherence to the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, national independence, non-use of force and non-interference in the internal affairs of respective countries, in addition to the peaceful settlement of all disputes. Sial believes that SAARC represents a consciousness among its member states that, in an increasingly interdependent world, the objectives of peace, freedom, social justice and economic prosperity are best achieved by fostering mutual understanding and good neighborly relations.
For the South Asian leadership, therefore, the need of the hour is to infuse new dynamism into SAARC and its activities in order to confront shared ills and make the region more peaceful and and knowledge-based. Most importantly, in an era when physical borders are becoming progressively irrelevant, with resources, people and information flowing on an unprecedented scale, SAARC has the potential to be an effective tool for promoting seamless trade and transit connectivity between South-East, North-East and Central Asia via South Asia, thus linking up the markets of these regions for the greater good of the people.
According to Sial, SAARC is fundamentally geared toward the improvement of connectivity and infrastructure for promoting people-to-people contacts, as well as the movement of goods and services, with the information revolution strengthening the organization’s priorities. Indeed, SAARC has taken some significant strides toward enhancing inter and intra-regional multimodal connectivity, with assistance from the Asian Development Bank, to stimulate greater inter-regional trade, as well as promoting all-round socioeconomic developments.
Moreover, SAARC’s progression from South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement to South Asian Free Trade Area has unlocked the remarkable possibilities of achieving a robust South Asian Economic Union with a single market, currency and a visa-free regime, joint investment forum, multilateral regional security force, and common energy, information technology and transport corridors for the free flow of people, capital and ideas. This in turn could help integrate South Asia completely and synchronize SAARC’s agenda with that of other inter-governmental agencies in contiguous regions.
– Seema Sengupta is a Kolkata-based journalist and recipient of the National Award for Excellence rendered in appreciation of excellent services in the field of Freelance Journalism.
