New Delhi: India is the envy of many of its neighbours. It’s no secret that these neighbours devote a lot of time to come up with plans and strategies in a bid to dent India’s growing influence.
One such plan, being worked out by Pakistan and China, is to create a new regional bloc to replace SAARC – the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation — in which India was a prominent member.
According to a recent report in Pakistani English daily The Express Tribune, talks between Islamabad and Beijing are at an advanced level. Bangladesh also took part in the recent meeting on the proposed new regional bloc, held in China’s Kunming on June 19, the report added.
The ultimate goal of the meeting in Kunming on June 19 was to invite other South Asian countries, which were part of SAARC, to join the new grouping, the Karachi-based paper said.
Pakistan and China are said to be “convinced” that a new organisation is the need of the hour for “regional integration and connectivity”.
Bangladesh, however, played safe, saying that the meeting in Kunming between the three countries was “not political”.
“It was a meeting at the official level, not at the political level… There was no element of formation of any alliance,” said M Touhid Hossain, Foreign Affairs in the Muhammad Yunus-headed interim Bangladesh government.
Pakistan and China believe that SAARC members, including Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan, will be part of the new grouping. India was not mentioned.
A China-Pakistan-Afghanistan trilateral meeting was held in May, which focused on expanding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and enhancing regional collaboration in the Taliban-ruled Islamic country.
History of SAARC
The SAARC was formed on 8th December, 1985, through the adoption of its Charter in Dhaka. There were seven founding members — India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – with Afghanistan joining the grouping in 2007.
The SAARC has been inactive since 2016.
The last SAARC summit, its 18th edition, was held in Kathmandu in 2014. The 19th summit was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016, but India decided to boycott it because of Pakistan-sponsored Uri terror attack, in which 17 Indian soldiers were killed.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan also pulled out, citing concerns about terrorism and regional interference, leading to the cancellation of the summit. It has not been rescheduled since then, with India refusing to engage in any deliberations with Pakistan as long as cross-border terrorism wasn’t addressed.
