WHILE the rise of Asia is indomitable and obvious in the throne of world politics and economy, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could be a potential organisation to lead the region if its eight members expedite the organisation. The nations of SAARC are also members of several overlapping organisations but none of these organisations has the breadth or depth to play the role as the EU does. It would be possible by SAARC as experts opined. But SAARC has so far been unable to live up to its potential. Now the three key deals supposed to be signed at the 18th summit in Kathmandu are unlikely to happen.
According to reports published by dailies the three agreements — SAARC Motor Vehicles Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger and Cargo Vehicular Traffic amongst SAARC member states, SAARC Regional Railways Agreement, and SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity) would not be signed in the upcoming summit due to certain unfinished internal processes. The SAARC Standing Committee, comprised of its foreign secretaries, had given priority of the issues of integration and connectivity and energy cooperation, as stated at a press briefing at Kathmandu, but the sought after cooperation could not be met due to lack of confidence among the member states and the domineering behaviour of India, expert opined.
Established in 1985, SAARC failed to emerge as a strong regional organisation for the provision of bilateral issues prohibition at the SAARC discussion table. While EU links and stimulates the nations of the continent and designs common goals and mutual cooperation, SAARC flaunts its structural and diplomatic inabilities in harmonising security tensions and a borderless market economy. From the first summit to now several hundred rhetorical decisions were made, committees to implement these were formed, large plans were designed, diplomatic words were exchanged, structural adjustments were ratified, and the SAARC charter adopted but no visible progress has been made with regard to the aims and objects of SAARC.
On the eve of the SAARC silver jubilee, it is easy to check the compatibility of its action and charter. Even now youth development, poverty alleviation, improvement of connectivity, climate change, science and technology, education, women empowerment, food security and combating terrorism are the common challenges for the eight countries.
SAARC policies aim at promoting welfare economics, collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia and to accelerate socio-cultural development in the region. It is a time-worthy question as to what portion of the charter has materialized as SAARC will observe its 25th founding anniversary in 2015. SAARC has a huge trade potential to make the region a vibrant economic zone and strong commitment and decisive actions are required to fully and effectively implement the South Asian Free Trade Area [SAFTA] agreement. Therefore, tremendous progress is possible if meaningful cooperation exists among the member states.
