#Evolution of SAARC
🔶 The idea of SAARC itself was put on the table by Bangladeshi leader Ziaur Rehman in the late 1970’s and it was Bangladesh which had actually pushed forward the idea of SAARC at initial stages.
🔶 Dhaka pursued the idea of SAARC initially with a view to containing the “hegemony” of India in South Asia, a view fuelled by the structural asymmetry between India and its smaller South Asian neighbors.
🔶 India also on the other hand was not very enthusiastic about the idea of SAARC as it believed that given the fact that itS neighbors harboured too many apprehensions about it and this will hamper the prospects of India at the organization, rather it will become a platform for bashing India.
🔶 Pakistan also was not very enthusiastic about SAARC since its inception as it knew that SAARC would be dominated by India (due to its sheer size).
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
🛡️Background
🔶South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
🔶SAARC has eight members (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka).
🔶 These eight nations of South Asia constitute 3 per cent of the world’s area, but house 21per cent of the global population. India, significantly, constitutes 70 per cent of SAARC’s area and population.
🔶 The organization promotes multilateral cooperation and regional integration. It launched
the South Asian Free Trade Area in 2006.
🔶19th SAARC Summit, scheduled to take place in 2015 in Islamabad, was postponed due to non participation of India and other countries owing to Pakistan's interference in the
domestic affairs of other countries.
📝Causes for the Limited Progress of SAARC
🔶Some of the major reasons for the limited progress on the part of SAARC to take off in any concrete manner has been due to-
1. Origin of SAARC- since its inception, SAARC was seen as a tool by some countries to contain India, while India also harbored its own apprehensions that the organization may be used by smaller states to score political points against it at multilateral forums.
2. India- Pakistan relations: bilateral difficulties between two of the largest members of SAARC have had casted a long shadow over the idea of SAARC. Other members of SAARC have often argued that the SAARC grouping has been crippled/ has been held back because of the fluctuating nature of their relationship. Moreover, Pakistan has never supported the idea of strengthening SAARC as it fears that India will occupy centre stage within the grouping.
Recent Developments within SAARC
At the 18th Summit of SAARC in 2014, at Kathmandu, a SAARC Framework Agreement on Energy Cooperation (electricity) was signed. The rationale for signing the SAARC electricity
trade agreement was the impending domestic energy crisis faced by individual member countries. For instance, Pakistan is struggling to meet its rising energy demands. Under this agreement:
🔶 agreement is meant to be an overarching cooperative scheme that aims to address
broad issues such as the enabling of cross border trade in electricity, the development
of a common regulatory mechanism and the waiving of customs fees
🔶 18th summit decided to close down three regional centres, namely the SAARC
Documentation Centre (SDC) in New Delhi, SAARC Human Resource Development Centre
(SHRDC) in Islamabad and SAARC Information Centre (SIC) in Kathmandu and transfer their mandates to the secretariat and other mechanisms.
