SAARC vs. ASEAN

With which organization can SAARC be compared?

Apart from the SAARC, the southeastern region also accounts with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This organization groups countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Below, a brief comparison between the regional intergovernmental organizations of SAARC and ASEAN is exposed.

SAARC	ASEAN

First of all, both organizations pursue the empowerment of the corresponding regions, which seek to emerge as more powerful in the global dynamics and have a say in world affairs. In this sense, SAARC seeks to promote the development of economic and regional integration. Likewise, ASEAN pursues to promote Pan-Asianism and intergovernmental cooperation as well as facilitate economic, political, security, military, educational and socio-cultural integrations.

In terms of the size of the organizations, they expand in a relatively similar area. However,  SAARC accounts with more than the double of the population of ASEAN. Indeed, countries that compound the first organization are found in the most populated areas of the world. Following, the table shows this numerical data rounded:

	SAARC	ASEAN
Membership	Afghanistan, Banlgadesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka	Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
Area	5.000.000 km2	4.500.000 km2
Population	1.700 million	640 million
GDP	US $9.9 trillion	US $8 trillion

Although this data appears to put the organizations in equal terms, there are many differences between them. Actually, ASEAN is much more known worldwide and its policies appear to be more efficient. Furthermore, if we analyze the GDP per person, ASEAN is much wealthier.

When SAARC and ASEAN were created both suffered from tensions between the countries that were bound to compound the organizations. Nevertheless, ASEAN resolved these by focusing on the outside threat which was communism at the time. The core ASEAN members (Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand) all saw the communist threat. Thus, this common external danger perception provided the impetus for these countries to set aside their bilateral issues and work towards establishing a stable region conducive to export-oriented economic growth.

All in all, at the time no SAARC meetings are taking place. India says that it cannot meet until Pakistan addresses the most common problem of the region which is terrorism. Because of this mistrust scenario, SAARC appears to stagnate and it seems that it will never be as successful as ASEAN.

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Minister of Pakistan

Furthermore, SAARC hasn’t received much attention in mediatic terms. There are actually some articles concerning the organization, but these are rather outdated. Indeed, the whole southern region doesn’t tend to be on the global news’ spotlight.

To sum up , there is a great trade relationship between SAARC and ASEAN. India and Pakistan have formalized relations with ASEAN to different degrees: Pakistan is a sectoral dialogue partner of ASEAN, while India has become a Summit level partner as well as being included in the ASEAN Regional Forum. All in all, the two organizations are considered to be at different levels, with ASEAN recognized worldwide whereas SAARC is associated with failure. For this reason, ASEAN has often been regarded as a model for SAARC, so that it could achieve its aim to be able to propel integration and development of the southeastern region.