New Delhi – Against the backdrop of the establishment of the Shehbaz Sharif Government in Pakistan, India’s Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, has dismissed the possibility of an immediate revival of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Without naming Pakistan, Jaishankar stated that SAARC is in crisis because one of its members openly supports terrorism. This situation raises serious questions about the future of SAARC.
SAARC is a regional organisation that includes India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Since 2016, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of SAARC.
After the terrorist attack on an Indian military base in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Afghanistan refused to participate in it.
India has started promoting BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) in place of SAARC. Foreign Minister Jaishankar said that cooperation within BIMSTEC is progressing, and there is a desire for the organisation to grow.