Road to Formation: In the late 1970s, Bangladesh's President, Zia-yr-Rahman, proposed the idea of creating a trade group among South Asian countries. He sent letters to leaders in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, explaining how such an organization could promote trust, understanding, and friendship in the region. After discussions, Bangladesh was tasked with drafling a proposal for this new organization. In 1980, foreign secretaries of these countries met in Dhaka to discuss the proposal. Another meeting took place in Sri Lanka in 1981, where they identified five areas for cooperation. By 1983, during a meeting in New Delhi, the countries confirmed these areas. Finally, SAARC was officially established in December 1985 during a summit in Dhaka, with its secretariat in Kathmandu. Objectives of SAARC: SAARC, which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, aims to encourage regional cooperation for socio-economic and cultural development. The main goals are: 1. To promote self-reliance among South Asian countries. 2. To build mutual trust and understanding of each other’s issues. 3. To promote cooperation in economic, social, cultural, technical, and scientific fields. 4. To strengthen cooperation with other developing countries. 5. To work together in international forums on common issues. 6. To collaborate with regional and global organizations that share similar goals. Institutional Framework:1. The Summit: The Summit is the highest decision-making body of SAARC. It brings together heads of state or government from the member countries, along with the Secretary General. The Summit typically meets once a year or every two years to make important decisions on regional cooperation. 2. Council of Ministers: This is the main policy-making body of SAARC. It is made up of the Foreign Ministers of each member country and meets twice a year. The Council: Makes policies for SAARC. Reviews progress in different areas. « Decides on new areas of cooperation. < Takes decisions on matters of general interest to the organization. 3. Standing Committee: The Standing Committee consists of the Foreign Secretaries of the SAARC countries and meets twice a year. This committee: = Monitors and coordinates activities. Identifies areas for cooperation. Mobilizes resources and sets priorities. = Reports to the Council of Ministers on its findings. 4. Technical Committees: SAARC has six technical committees that focus on specific areas, such as agriculture, rural development, health, environment, transport, science and technology, women, youth, and children. These committees: « Include representatives from all member countries. < Meet annually to discuss and plan activities within their areas of focus. 5. The Secretariat: The Secretariat is the main administrative body of SAARC, created in 1987. It is responsible for carrying out day-to-day operations, implementing policies, and managing the organization. It is located in Kathmandu. The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, who is chosen in alphabetical order from SAARC member countries for a three-year term, which can be extended in special cases. The Secretary-General is assisted by staff members, including eight directors, each representing one of the member countries. of the Region: Enabler or Disabler? South Asia is a densely populated region with countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. These countries have different types of governments, socio-economic conditions, ethnic groups, religions, and languages. This diversity can make peace and cooperation difficult at times. South Asia is home to multiple religions, including Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Christianity, which sometimes leads to conflicts when religious or linguistic groups overlap across borders. Despite these challenges, the geographical closeness of the countries has encouraged the idea of regional cooperation and integration. SAARC was formed to promote cooperation, but progress has been slower than in other regional groups due to factors like the need for changing attitudes and India’s role in the process. 7:Debating SAARC’s Effectiveness: SAARC has problems working together because its member countries don’t agree on how to move forward. Pakistan and Sri Lanka think that peace and security issues must be solved first before countries can truly work together. Pakistan even wants to change the rules of SAARC so that theseproblems can be discussed. Sri Lanka also believes that without talking about political issues, real cooperation won't happen. 8:On the other hand, India and Bangladesh do not agree with changing SAARC’s rules. They think that talking about difficult problems could create more trouble. Even though countries disagree, SAARC sometimes holds informal meetings during its summits where leaders talk privately. For example, after the 1998 nuclear tests, these talks helped reduce tension, but no real solutions were made. Still, these meetings mostly focus on trade and basic cooperation, not on big political or border issues, so SAARC hasn’t been very successful in solving serious problems. 9:Problem of Indian Centrality: Even though smaller South Asian countries started SAARC, India didn’t fully support it at first. India was afraid that other countries might use SAARC to pressure it about their problems with India. It also feared that outside countries could influence SAARC in ways that hurt India. Even now, India is not happy with SAARC. India wants SAARC to focus on trade and growing the economy. But Pakistan wants to solve political problems first, like fights between countries. India thinks if the economy gets better, political problems will reduce. Pakistan thinks the opposite — that we must fix political problems first, or economic growth won't happen. Because of this disagreement, SAARC has not worked well. That's why India is now paying more attention to other regional groups in Southeast and East Asia, where it has good trade ties. 10.Extra-Regional Actors as Constraining Factors: India is a big and powerful country, which makes its neighbors feel unsafe. These countries don’t all agree on what the real threats are. Many of them see India as a threat and ask other powerful countries for help with their security. But when outside countries get involved, it upsets the balance in the region and goes against India’s interests. This makes it hard for SAARC to work properly. 11.Lack of Leadership Interest: SAARC has not been very important for most South Asian countries. Except for Bangladesh’s President Ziaur Rahman, who started it in the 1980s, no other leader has shown much interest. Because of this, SAARC has not made much progress. A scholar from Nepal says that powerful people in South Asia create divisions on purpose to stay in power and please their followers. This stops countries from working together and harms regional unity. 12.Use of Force as an Instrument of Foreign Policy: In South Asia, countries still use force to deal with other countries. Sadly, SAARC has not been able to stop or handle violent conflicts in the region. Countries are still new to working together, and there is no strong system to manage fights. Because of this, it is hard to build trust and reduce tensions through SAARC. Proposal for Restructuring SAARC for Better Regional Cooperation 1. South Asia Security Dialogue (SASD): SAARC should create a platform called SASD to resolve territorial and non-territorial disputes. It would include all SAARC countries, along with the US, EU, and China as facilitators. SASD would focus on discussions at the working group level, involving governments, civilsociety, and global actors. If SASD works well, it can help gradually resolve conflicts in the region. 2. South Asia Nuclear Dialogue (SAND): SAND should focus on reducing nuclear risks, especially between India and Pakistan. The goal would be to move from maximum deterrence to a minimum credible deterrence approach. If major disputes are resolved, SAND could aim for nuclear disarmament in the region. . Conventional Arms Reduction Dialogue (CARD): South Asian countries are increasing their military spending. CARD would encourage countries to reduce their conventional arms and military personnel, allowing resources to be spent on human security issues like education and healthcare. 4, South Asian Parliament (SAP): A regional parliament with equal representation from all SAARC countries could help create a forum for exchanging ideas. The SAP would provide recommendations on mutual concerns, and leadership could rotate every four years. Confidence Building Measures (CBMs): CBMs would help build trust between countries. This could include easing visa requirements, facilitating prisoner exchanges, reducing military forces along borders, and fostering friendly statements from national leaders. In India-Pakistan relations, CBMs can help set the stage for talks on major issues, like Kashmir. 6. People-to-People Contacts (PPC): PPC initiatives like inter-parliamentary dialogues and exchanges between investors, students, and academics can help reduce historical tensions and focus on human security. These exchanges would work as complementary tools for conflict resolution. 7. Multi-Tracked Diplomacy (MTD): MTD involves multiple levels of diplomacy: state-to-state meetings (Track-1), regional diplomatic efforts (Track-2), civil society involvement (Track-3), and global actors supporting diplomacy (Track-4). This approach has helped ease tensions in South Asia in the past and can be continued, . Intra-Region Trade: Trade within South Asia is low. The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) should be implemented to remove trade barriers and promote investment and free movement of labor. This would strengthen economic ties within the region. 9. Human Security: South Asian leaders should prioritize human security, focusing on issues like trade, education, healthcare, food security, and disaster management. This would ensure people’s needs are met even in times of conflict. w a 2 10.South Asia Literacy Commission (SALC): To tackle illiteracy, SAARC should establish SALC as an independent body. This organization would focus on building schools and universities across the region, with a particular focus on high-illiteracy areas. It would also encourage student exchanges across member countries. 11.South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA): SAFMA, an existing institution of SAARC, should be revived to create a dialogue-friendly environment. It should work as a collaborator for regional integration, avoiding the interests of individual states, and promoting regional cooperation through media.