ACTIONS PERFORMED AND CRITICISM

What plans of actions has SAARC performed?

(2012, Ahmad)

Regardless of its claimed unsuccess, SAARC has conducted many plans of action. First of all, apart from being a regional organization for its scope, SAARC is classified as a general organization since it isn’t specialized in a particular field. In this sense, SAARC is not considered a military organization like it would be the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (OTAN). It is nor a technical organization like the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) either. Instead, SAARC keeps a more general approach; it has a broader plan of action which includes many fields. Below, there is the list of the regional centers that have been established in order to observe the multidisciplinarity character of the organization.

• SAARC Agricultural Information Centre
• SAARC Documentation Centre
• SAARC Meteorological Research Centre
• SAARC Tuberculosis Centre
• SAARC Human Resources Development Centre
• SAARC Preferential Trading Agreement
• SAARC South Asian Free Trade Area
• SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism
• SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
• SAARC Food Security Reserve
• SAARC Audio Visual Exchange Programme
• SAARC Chairs, Fellowships and Scholarships Scheme
• SAARC Volunteer Exchange Programme
• SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme

The 18th SAARC Summit

Did it Work?

SAARC is widely regarded as a failure of regional cooperation. The intention of its formation was to promote ‘cooperation in social, cultural, economic and commercial fields in the region’ but in the three decades of its existence, it has ‘accomplished few real results’ (Yousaf et al., 2017). In 2010, the World Bank reported that South Asia was the ‘least integrated region of the world’ (Yousaf et al., 2017).  This is primarily due to the ongoing regional conflicts between Pakistan and India, the two largest countries in the association and the mistrust that permeates throughout the region and inhibits the ability for states to cooperate and trade freely. India’s dominant position in terms of ‘its economic, demographic and geographical size’ is also seen as a reason for the association’s failure. India has considerably more power within SAARC than the other smaller states in the region and the formation of SAARC has failed to counter India’s influence and clear dominance.

For SAARC to be a successful forum for intra-regional cooperation, India and Pakistan must resolve their territorial disputes in a multilateral binding agreement. Yet, this seems unlikely to occur as Pakistan does not wish to ‘accept Indian supremacy’ and likewise, India will not ‘negotiate on equal basis with Pakistan’ (Yousaf et al., 2017). Until these core issues can be resolved it is likely that the SAARC organization will continue to be dysfunctional and ineffective.

For further information, in the following video, it is debated whether SAARC is relevant nowadays.