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SAARC
SAARC was founded in 1985.
Secretariat - Kathmandu, Nepal.

Member states: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Afghanistan joined SAARC in 2007.

Courtesy: www.mapsofworld.com
Journey so far
• South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) - Signed in 2004 during 12th SAARC Summit held in
Islamabad. The Agreement entered into force on 1 January 2006.
o Bring their duties down to 20% by 2009, which is yet to be implemented.
o Intra-SAARC trade amounts to 1% of SAARC's GDP, in contrast, in ASEAN - 10% of its GDP.
• SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme
• South Asian University
• SAARC Disaster Management Centre
• "SAARC Chamber" of Commerce & Industry
• South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA): Signed in April 1993 and entered into force in
December 1995 to enhance mutual economic cooperation in the region.
• South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC)

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Recent Developments
• South Asia Satellite
o "Pakistan has decided to opt-out of the satellite project. So it cannot be called a SAARC
satellite. It will be a South Asia satellite"
• Framework agreement in power sector - Electricity trading through grid connectivity.
• India Business Card for SAARC trade: “India Business Card” to be given to businessmen of high
repute in SAARC countries.

Reasons for failure:

• Weak Cultural Identities - The pursuit of maintaining distinct cultural identity by every country.
• Rivalry between India and Pakistan, the two largest members of SAARC.
• The region still faces many unresolved border and maritime issues.
• SAARC Charter Article X (2): mandates decisions only on the basis of unanimity.
• The trust deficit among the countries in the region.
• Fear of India's Big Brotherly attitude.
• India’s apprehension: Such an organisation might be used by her smaller neighbours to extract
undue concessions by expressing their fear of being bullied by India.

Way Forward
• Focus on developing our South Asian identity.
• Develop physical and soft connectivity.
• Trade integration needs to be expedited through faster implementation of SAFTA.

The 19th SAARC summit, scheduled to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan in November 2016 was postponed
due to Uri attack and yet has not been held.

Amb. Rajiv Sikri: "A fundamental problem is that South Asia’s political borders are artificial. India’s
neighbours deliberately downplay the interdependence, complementarities and commonalities of the
region. All of India’s neighbours implicitly recognize that India is South Asia’s natural leader. However,
India cannot take leadership for granted; it has to earn it."

Shivshankar Menon: South Asia May Be Politically Divided But It Faces Common Security Challenges.
Nation-building is still a work in progress in southern Asia, and state sovereignties are still new and
fiercely defended.

Shyam Saran: Regional connectivity in South Asia should be a strategic priority for India.

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