Reclaiming SAARC from the ashes of 2020
Updated:
Updated:
January 13, 2021 00:40 IST
Despite the despondency, the rationale for its existence is intact, and India can use it as a stage for its global ambitions
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Despite the despondency, the rationale for its existence is intact, and India can use it as a stage for its global ambitions
Thirty-six years after it first began, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), appears to be all but dead in the water. The year 2020 marked the sixth year since the leaders of the eight nations that make up SAARC were able to meet. Further evidence of its perilous position, if any was needed, came on the SAARC charter day on December 8, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it clear that India’s position on cross-border terrorism from Pakistan that led New Delhi to refuse to attend the SAARC summit in 2016 in Islamabad, is still in place. This indicates that the grouping, which cannot convene unless all leaders agree to meet, is unlikely to do so in the near future.