foreign ministers meeting South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation The SAARC countries scheduled to be held in New York on Saturday have been cancelled. Sources report that the member states were unable to agree on Afghanistan’s participation, particularly with Pakistan and India in the face-to-face on the issue.
After Pakistan objected to the involvement of any officials from the previous Ghani administration, SAARC members reportedly agreed to keep the “empty chair” as a symbolic representation of Afghanistan. However, Islamabad later insisted that the Taliban be allowed to send their representative to the summit, a notion rejected by all other member states.
After no consensus was reached, the summit’s ‘host’ Nepal officially called off the meeting.
Why did the countries object?
The Taliban is not recognized as the official government of Afghanistan by any of the SAARC countries except Pakistan. Several top Taliban leaders have been blacklisted by the US and/or designated as international terrorists. Senior leaders who have not been blacklisted are known to support terrorist activities or be associated with terrorist organizations.
While India and other countries have met with Taliban spokespersons, allowing them to represent Afghanistan in SAARC would legitimize the group and serve as a formal recognition of their right to govern. Apart from Pakistan, which has close ties to the Taliban, especially its violent subgroup, the Haqqani Network, none of the other SAARC members recognize the Taliban and some, such as India, have openly questioned their legitimacy.
Last week, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, Prime Minister Modi referred to the Taliban as a non-inclusive government, warning other countries to think before accepting the regime in Afghanistan. SAARC members are acutely aware of the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, particularly with Bangladesh, concerned about the impact on insurgency within its borders. Acknowledging the same, Modi said that “development in Afghanistan could lead to an uncontrolled flow of drugs, illegal arms and human trafficking.”
Formation of SAARC
SAARC is a regional inter-governmental organization of the South Asian countries, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan joined the group in 2007 under the leadership of then President Hamid Karzai. SAARC also includes nine formally recognized observers, including the European Union, the US, Iran and China.
After the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the security situation in South Asia deteriorated rapidly. In response, the foreign ministers of the initial seven members met in Colombo in 1981. In the meeting, Bangladesh proposed to form a regional federation that would meet to discuss matters such as security and trade. While most of the countries present were in favor of the proposal, India and Pakistan were skeptical.
News bulletin | Click to get the best interpreters of the day delivered to your inbox
Eventually, the two countries bowed out and in 1983 in Dhaka, the South Asian Association joined the other five countries in signing the Declaration on Regional Cooperation and, with it, the official formation of SAARC. At the Dhaka meeting, the member countries also launched the Integrated Action Plan which includes five areas of cooperation among SAARC countries, namely agriculture; Rural development; telecommunications; Meteorology; and health and population activities. According to the SAARC Charter, the organization’s goal was to contribute to “mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of each other’s problems”.
In 2005, Afghanistan formally applied for membership of SAARC, a move that sparked debate over the introduction of Afghan democracy and the country’s perception as a Central Asian nation. The SAARC nations, under pressure from Pakistan, agreed to include Afghanistan with the condition that it hold the first non-partisan general elections, which it did in late 2005. In 2007, Afghanistan became the eighth member state of SAARC.
What has SAARC done so far?
Despite its high ambitions, SAARC has not become a regional union in the mold of the European Union or the African Union. Its member states have been plagued by internal divisions, particularly conflicts between India and Pakistan. This in turn has hindered its ability to forge comprehensive trade agreements or make meaningful cooperation in areas such as security, energy and infrastructure. The 18th and last SAARC summit was held in 2014, with Pakistan to host the 19th summit in 2016. However, after Islamabad’s alleged involvement in the Uri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, Modi refused to participate. Soon after, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka also pulled out of the summit, citing fears of regional insecurity caused by Pakistan and lack of a conducive environment for talks. Nepal was unable to withdraw from the summit as the chairman of SAARC was from Nepal.
Despite these setbacks, SAARC has achieved some degree of success. It has provided a platform for the representatives of member countries to meet and discuss important issues, something that can be challenging through bilateral discussions. For example, India and Pakistan will struggle to publicly justify a meeting when tensions between the two are particularly high, but representatives of the two countries can come together under the SAARC banner. The bloc has also made some progress in signing agreements to tackle climate change, food security and COVID-19 Difficulty. It has the potential to do much more but depends on cooperation between member states on important issues.
Pakistan and the rest of the SAARC grouping in support of the Taliban are weary to admit that unless the issue is resolved, any future summits are unlikely.
.