29 Regional Cooperation in South Asia: Evolution, Problems and Prospects of SAARC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

16.1     Objectives

16.2      Introduction

16.3      Regional Cooperation

16.3.1 Evolution of the Idea

16.3.2 New Regionalism

16.3.3 The South Asian Scenario

16.4      SAARC

16.4.1 The Origin

16.4.2 The Evolution

16.4.3 The Summits

16.5     SAARC: Achievements

16.6     SAARC: Problems and Prospects

16.7      Assessment and Evaluation

16.1     Objectives

After going through this module, you should be able to:

• Understand the meaning and nature of regionalism
• Trace the distinction between old and new regionalism
• Understand the importance of regional cooperation in South Asia
• Appreciate the achievements of SAARC
• Analyse the challenges and problems before SAARC as a regional organization

Summary

Regionalism is an important phenomenon in world politics particularly in the globalization. In the present race for globalization, liberalization and economic development, regional cooperation is unavoidable. The political and military regionalism of the 19th and 20th century has been replaced by economic regionalism and cooperation. South Asia is a region dominated by India and during the colonial period was known as Indian sub-continent. Thought the countries in the region got independence in late 1940s it was only in early 1980s that the idea of a regional cooperation organization erupted and in 1985 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was formally established. The implicit motive was to keep India in check by the smaller surrounding neighbouring countries of India and the explicit motive was to strengthen regional cooperation. SAARC as an institution has halted progress because of the bilateral tension between India and Pakistan, the two major countries of the region. SAARC in its thirty plus years of existence have failed to resolve the crucial regional disputes and therefore seen as a failed regional organization by most scholars. However SAARC is also a platform to lessen the tensed atmosphere that otherwise prevails among the member-countries and to create mutually beneficial economic interactive milieu in the region. Thus SAARC as a regional organization may be in a low ebb but as a cooperative platform the merit of this organization must be reckoned with.

16.2  Introduction

In the previous module we have discussed in detail the nature and types of conflicts prevailing in South Asia region. By now we have a sufficient understanding that South Asian region is tensed and conflict-prone. This module will specifically focus on the nature of cooperation in the region particularly through the working of the regional organization SAARC. It was the perceived big-brother attitude of India that required to be tackled by the smaller neighbouring countries of India. On the other side India wanted to check any sinister design through the perceived ‘gang-up’ syndrome of the neighbouring countries against India. With these two mutually exclusive motive India and other smaller neighbouring countries of India came together to form the regional organization called SAARC. However due to conflictual environment in the region, including threat of terrorist attack and animosity between India and Pakistan, the SAARC summit meetings were irregular and therefore the gelling of the countries of the region with each other remained low. SAARC achieved some success in promoting economic engagement among the member-countries and creating educational and cultural exchanges. The biggest challenge before SAARC is bring the member-countries out of the bilateral disputed environment. In that direction the role of extra-regional powers, particularly China and United States of America, as observer countries, is extremely crucial. SAARC as a regional organization is trying to exist despite the perception that it is a dead organization. The very fact of expansion of SAARC from seven to eight member-countries with the inclusion of Afghanistan in 2005 amply demonstrates the attraction of this regional organization.

16.3 Regional Cooperation

The hallmark of contemporary international politics is the proliferation of regional groupings of varied nature and scope. Regional framework is being widely accepted as a strategy for meeting the challenges of the present unjust world economic order and overcoming internal structural inadequacies. Regionalism refers to the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose combined with the creation and implementation of institutions that express a particular identity and shape collective action within a geographical region. Regionalism can be broadly defined as the development of institutionalized cooperation among states and other actors on the basis of regional contiguity as a feature of global politics.1

16.3.1    Evolution of the Idea

The problem of defining regions and regionalism attracted a good deal of academic attention in the late sixty’s and early seventies of the last century. During this period particular attention was given to the idea of regional interdependence.2 The regionalist challenge of this period fell far short of expectations as they there were few places outside Europe where the regionalist experiment had produced tangible results. Throughout the cold war period the scope of regionalism was thus limited partly as a consequence of the continuing bipolar nature of the international system and because of extreme tenacity with which states clung to their sovereignty. The period since late eighties of the last century has witnessed a resurgence of regionalism in world politics. It was the developments in the European community in the mid eighties of the last century set against a broader pattern of global economic change and followed by a radical transformation of Eastern Europe and Soviet Union at the end of the decade led to renewed interest in new forms of regionalism. The factors for such a drift towards regionalist phenomenon have indeed been looked upon by a wide range of scholars emphasizing on the favorable domestic and international context

1 Steve Smith and John Baylis(ed), 2003: Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International

Relations , Oxford University Press

2 Joseph Nye(1963): International Regionalism ; Boston

in the ninety’s of the last century for the same.3 An important driving force for this process has been the end of the cold war that provided new opportunities for regions to cooperate in matters of trade and security, in particular. The removal of the old overlay patterns of great power influence has encouraged multipolarity and contributed to an international system in which regional arrangements can be expected to assume greater importance.4 Regionalist arrangements have been central to many debates about the nature of post cold war world order. Nothing succeeds like success and so further impetus came from the European Union through the completion of Single European Market and the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. The broader consequences of globalization and the long drawn out negotiation of the Uruguay round of GAAT talks helped to accelerate the move. The third wave of democratization and trend towards liberal welfare state among countries creates a more hospitable environment to independence at the regional and global level. Trend towards regionalism has been reinforced by the nature of contemporary security challenges that derive not from strength but from weakness like the failure of the states to provide minimal conditions of order within its borders. The shift in the ambitions and interests of major powers has led to decentralization or regionalization of international security. Contemporary instability stems from intra-regional or domestic dynamics that is to be understood and addressed on their own terms.5 Moreover the knowledge economy of our century also makes regionalism inevitable and irreversible.6

16.3.2 New Regionalism

It is said that the new wave of regionalist activity ranges from discussion of a world of regional trading blocs on one hand to increased emphasis on sub regionalism cooperation and integration on the other.4 7Thus the newness of this wave of

3  Dominick Salvatore: Protectionism and World Welfare(1993) ; W.W.Rostow: The Coming Age of

Regionalism(1990)  ;  Richard  Rosecrance:  Regionalism  and  Post  Cold  War  Era(1991)  ;  Kenichi

Ohame: The Rise of Region State(1993).

4 Barry Buzan(1983): People, States and Fear ; London,

5 Patrick. M. Cronin(1993):  From Globalism to Regionalism

6 Peter Drucker(1993) : Post Capitalist Society

7 Louis Fawcett and Andrew Harrell (ed), 1994: Regionalism in World Politics

regionalism stems from its multidimensional character, wide variation in the level of institutionalization and successful experiments of integration outside Europe. Given the wide proliferation of regional groupings across the globe, one can argue that the dominant trend in world politics today is towards regionalization rather than globalization. The period since late 1980s has witnessed a resurgence of regionalism in world politics. The substantial increase in the regionally based instiutionalised cooperation among states during 1990s led to observers like Hettne, Inotai and Sunkel to term this feature as ‘new regionalism’. It is claimed that the new recent wave of regionalist activity ranges from discussion of a world of regional trading blocs on one hand to increased emphasis on sub-regional cooperation and integration on the other. The newness of this wave of regionalism stems from its multidimensional character Writers like Aaron Friedberg Richard Rosecrance and Kenechi Ohame noted that both the domestic and international context of 1990s is much more favourable than that of 1960s because of the end of cold war and fixed alliance system blocs. In this era of new regionalism both micro and macro regional schemes stand together to create meso-regional groupings like ASEAN Regional Forum. Presently the old divisions between patterns of regionalist organization in the industrialized world and in the developing world have been undermined and North-South regionalism is the most innovative feature of this era. The inclusion of Mexico within the North American Free Trade Area in 1993 was epitome of newness of regionalism. The multidimensionality of new regionalism is reflected in the manner in which economic regionalism carry with it important geopolitical or security consequences. Yoichi Funabashi in his article ‘Asianization of Asia’ in 1993 noted that security issues cannot be considered separately from the regional economy. Asian Regional Forum was formed to look after security matter of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization from 1993.

16.3.3 The South Asian Scenario

South Asia is a compact unit, of sub-continental proportions, but occupying an easily identifiable geographical space, enjoying a broad cultural unity and a wide range of intra-regional economic complementarities. There were mighty empires in its history that straddled this sub-continent and the experience of colonialism more recently, reinforced the legacy of interconnectedness and affinity. Then came the trauma of partition, the growth of assertive nationalism, the drift away from democratic freedoms in some countries of the neighbourhood and the impact of global strategic and ideological rivalries, turning the sub-continent into a region of division and conflict, engendering a sense of siege both among States in its periphery and in India itself. The sub-continent is now home to several independent and sovereign states and this is a compelling political reality. South Asia encompasses eight independent sovereign countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan – which dominate the northern half of the Indian Ocean. It is the largest geographical entity of the Indian Ocean community and almost a continental whole. The region is therefore easily identifiable. South Asia is one of the most populous regions of the Asian continent. It contains nearly one-fifth of the world’s total population and has emerged as the poorest region of the world. Apart from economic gains, regional cooperation is needed for maintenance of peace and security, social unity, promotion of cultural synthesis and also for religious integrity. One of the major obstacles towards regional integration is political and military conflicts between the states of this region. Bilateral political relations in this region are defined by suspicion, strife, rivalry and antagonism. Tensions between India and Pakistan on Kashmir and terrorism issues, between India and Nepal on border issue, between India and Sri Lanka on Tamil diaspora issue, between India and Bangladesh on River Ganga and refugee issue are some examples of this mistrust and antagonism. Economic nationalism remains pervasive and widely used by the Governments as a tool to garner domestic support for their short term targets. Regional cooperation could impose obligations and commitments on states for reforms both in economy and also in politics. South Asian region has uniqueness in shared history, heritage, literature, culture, religion and language. The commonality of culture and religion provides a strong motive for regional cooperation as it has similar lifestyle, fashion and clothing trends, music, food or even cinema. Traditionally, the South Asian region experienced extensive physical and human connectivity like Spice trade, Silk Road or the scholarly and religious diffusion, such as Buddhism or Sufism. Although the states in the region have made significant progress in economic growth and development but at the same time they have has also produced violence and mistrust. In this context, regional cooperation could be an attempt to reduce this mistrust and hatred. In this context, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was founded as this region is derived from geographical structures, which contribute it a harmony within which cultural, religious, economic, and social process of cooperation can arise.

16.4 SAARC

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organization of eight countries in Southern Asia. In terms of population, its sphere of influence is the largest of any regional organization: almost 1.5 billion people. SAARC provides a platform for the peoples of South Asia to work together in the spirit understanding. It aims to accelerate the process of economic and social development in Member States. Objectives of SAARC are (a)To promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life. (b)To accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realize their full potential; (c)To promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia. (d)To contribute to mutual trust, understand and appreciation of one another’s problem; (e)To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields; (f)To strengthen cooperation with other developing countries; (g)To strengthen cooperation among themselves in international forums on matters of common interest; and (h)To cooperate with international and regional organisations with similar aims.

16.4.1 Origin

Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman first mooted the idea in the 1970’s for creation of a trade bloc, consisting of South Asian countries. The Declaration on South Asian Regional Cooperation(SARC) was adopted by the Foreign Ministers in 1983 in New Delhi. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was established, when its Charter was formally adopted on December 8 1985, at Dhaka.. In 1978, the Committee for Studies on Cooperation in Development (CSCD), led by the erudite and visionary Tarlok Singh, first took this initiative. Long before the proposition of creating a regional organization for South Asian countries was fl oated at the official level, the CSCD was involved in conceptualizing the idea of a South Asian community, as well as spelling out its actual economic possibilities. The inter-governmental body of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was subsequently born in 1985. By “political choice”, SAARC avoided cooperation in the core economic areas of money, finance, trade and manufacturing.8

8 Muchkund Dubey, “SAARC and South Asian Regional Integration”, Economic and Political Weekly, 7 April

2007, p. 1238.

16.4.2 The Evolution

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan started the association. Afghanistan was added to the regional grouping at the behest of India on November 13, 2005, and became a member on April 3, 2007. With the addition of Afghanistan, the total number of member states was raised to eight. SAARC Secretariat is located at Katmandu, Nepal. In April 2006, the United States of America and South Korea made formal requests to be granted observer status. The European Union also indicated interest in being given observer status, and made a formal request for the same to the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting in July 2006. On August 2, 2006 the foreign ministers of the SAARC countries agreed in principle to grant observer status to the US, South Korea and the European Union. Iran has also been given the observer status. The pulls of globalization and regionalisation appear to be paradoxical in nature – one calling for extension and the other calling for contraction. In this whirlwind the countries of South Asia posits themselves in an interesting place. The South Asian countries carry forward their regional institutional mechanism (SAARC) with promises and various deadlines to attain achievements. However to have greater regional cohesion it is important to have similar political systems which the South Asian countries are far interested to achieve. After the 14th SAARC Summit in April 2007 the South Asian leaders are showing more interest than before to have global connections giving various major world powers the status of observer countries. In the 15th Colombo Summit of SAARC in 2008 it has been proposed to have a regional anti-terrorist Act to combat terrorism.

16.4.3 The Summits

The first summit was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 7–8 December 1985 in which member-countries signed the SAARC Charter on 8 December 1985, thereby establishing the regional association, and established study groups on the problems of terrorism and drug trafficking, as well as planning a ministerial-level meeting about GATT, and a ministerial-level conference on increasing the participation of women at the regional level. The summit also agreed to establish a SAARC secretariat and adopted an official SAARC emblem. The second summit was held in India in November 16–17, 1986. The Heads of State or Government welcomed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the SAARC Secretariat by the Council of Ministers and their decision to locate the Secretariat in Kathmandu and appoint Ambassador Abul Ahsan of Bangladesh as the first Secretary-General of south Asian association of regional cooperation. The third summit was held in Nepal from 2–4 November 1987, where member states signed the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and an agreement to establish a South Asian Food Reserve. The fourth summit was held in Pakistan on 29–31 December 1988 and declared 1989 to be the ‘SAARC Year Against Drug Abuse’, declared 1990 to be the ‘SAARC Year of the Girl Child’. The fifth summit was held in Maldives on 21–23 November 1990 and the leaders signed the SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, launched the Special SAARC Travel Document. The sixth summit was held in Sri Lanka on 21 December 1991 and was famous for the launch of South Asian Preferential Trade Area(SAPTA). The seventh summit was held in Bangladesh on 10–11 April 1993. The eighth summit was held in India, on 2–4 May 1995. The ninth summit was held in Maldives, on 12–14 May 1997. The tenth summit was held in Sri Lanka, on 29–31 July 1998, and SAARC countries stressed for eradicating poverty and promoting joint collaboration. The eleventh summit was held in Nepal, on 4–6 January 2002. The twelfth summit was held in Islamabad, on 4–6 January 2004 and was famous for signing of South Asia Free Trade Area(SAFTA). The thirteenth summit was held in Bangladesh, on 12–13 November 2005 and was memorable for the inclusion of Afghanistan as the new member-country. The fourteenth summit of SAARC was held in India on 3rd-4 April 2007. The fifteenth summit of SAARC was held in Sri Lanka on 1–3 August 2008 and had a threadbare discussion on food security issues. The sixteenth summit was held in Bhutan on 28–29 April 2010 with the theme ‘Towards a Green and Happy South Asia’. The Seventeenth Summit was held from 10-11 of November 2011 in Maldives which signed most importantly SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters and SAARC Seed Bank Agreement. he 18th SAARC Summit was held at Nepal from November 26 to November 27, 2014 with the motto for ‘Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity’. The 19th SAARC Summit was scheduled to be held in November 2016 in Pakistan but because of Pakistan’s increasing lenient attitude towards \its alleged sponsored terrorist attacks on India, all the member-countries except Nepal boycotted the Summit’s host and therefore the 19th SAARC Summit is yet to take place.

16.5 SAARC: Achievements

The achievements of SAARC lies in two respect – one is its built in organizational design that comprises of six apex bodies like SAARC Chamber of Commerce& Industry (SCCI); SAARCLAW (South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation In Law), South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA); South Asia Foundation (SAF); South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC);Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL) . The other area of achievement lies through its working like SAFTA – a Free Trade Agreement confined to goods, but excluding all services like information technology. Agreement was signed to reduce customs duties of all traded goods to zero by the year 2016.; SAPTA – South Asia Preferential Trading Agreement for promoting trade amongst the member countries came into effect in 1995. SAARC visa exemption decided that certain categories of dignitaries should be entitled to a Special Travel document, which would exempt them from visas within the region. SAARC also made avenues for greater cultural co-operation for achieving the advantages of Least Developed Countries by providing forum for bilateral and regional agreements to the small poor nations for collaboration among themselves for development.

16.6     SAARC: Problems and Prospects

The eight countries of South Asia possess a very complex relationship. With the deep psychological impact of partition, in South Asia, the concomitant national security perspective have shaped the concept of sovereignty in the region in a particular manner that seem to be antithetical to the concept of supra nationality. Under the circumstances, the regional or sub-regional spirit would find it difficult to take roots in South Asia in a considerable manner unless and until there evolves a mindset and method for comprising sovereignty, at least in part. As it is pointed out that the notion of nationalism in a way, was reflexive in South Asia, where the nationalism of one South Asian country is articulated only vis-à-vis that of another South Asian country. In this background it is very difficult to have a composite South Asian identity. As a region South Asia
presents a specter of instability and disorder. Some of the western portrayals of South Asian futures indeed draw scary scenarios. The Carnegie Endowment’s index of failed and failing states for 2006, put almost all of India’s neighbours close to dismal prospects. The situation in some of these South Asian countries has indeed worsened since the painting of such scenarios. Afghanistan and Pakistan look far more vulnerable to jehadi terror. Sri Lanka’s undeclared Eelam War IV has acquired uglier dimensions. Nepal’s peace process looks shaky, and the developments in Bangladesh are confused and uncertain. The SAARC countries are trying to develop by bypassing the regional institution and organization. Actually in South Asian the regional institution appeared before the sentiment of regional cooperation. . Even in this milieu of ‘connectivity’ theme persisting in SAARC it is difficult to transform the conflictual attitude of the member states in the region. Issues like Kashmir dispute, terrorism, immigration, Indo-Pak chronic dispute, mutual antagonism between Pakistan and Afghanistan —-will surely loom large over facilitating connectivity. One of the most concern areas in the SAARC Charter is the presence of Article X whereby the contentious and bilateral issues shall be avoided and all decisions at all levels shall be taken unanimously. On this point the SAARC practice of unanimity differs from that of the consensus building process of ASEAN. The real problem in SAARC lies with the attitude of member-countries of SAARC towards each other. A major obstacle to cooperation is that it included state of a low-level of development and similar resource endowment. There is no much scope for intra industry specialisation between member states of South Asia region. Cooperation could be more successful if there is much scope for market driven integration. In South Asian region transaction cost are high due to high share of raw material, high transportation costs, weak infrastructure and fragile financial service. The pulls of globalization and regionalisation appear to be paradoxical in nature – one calling for extension and the other calling for contraction. In this whirlwind the countries of South Asia posits themselves in an interesting place. The member states should adopt the philosophy of ‘Development Cooperation’ that has given desired results in ASEAN states. Trade should be viewed as a means of development. Similarly, SAARC member states should have a forum for political issues in order to establish atmosphere of trust and cooperation among member states. Like ASEAN, SAARC should also have a regional political forum, called the “South Asia Regional Forum” which would be useful in reinforcing the process of “confidence-building, preventive diplomacy, and peaceful settlement of disputes”. Although, the practical problems of implementing regional cooperation could not be overstated yet these are not the problems that could not be overcome. Regional cooperation can offer substantial benefits to all the small states of South Asia. Not only in the areas of trade and investment but also in the areas of cross- border project specific coordination, macro-economic policy harmonisation and people to people contacts must be encouraged. This coordination of efforts would assist in mobilising scarce economic and natural resources. The regional cooperation processes demands an effective participation of all sectors of the economy along with the governments, the business lobby, the civil society organisations (CSOs), labour unions, religious and cultural groups. This kind of low level Track II and Track III diplomacy can help in increasing the cooperative milieu. South Asia today needs SARC, (i.e. South Asian Regional Cooperation – a sentiment, feeling, attitude and mentality of togetherness) more than an institutional framework (SAARC). SAARC needs to come out of the old regionalism based on integration to new regionalism based on economic, social and environmental security.

Interesting facts

1. Regional cooperation depends on mindset of member-countries and not on prevalent global order
2. Indo-Pakistan tension is a major problem for SAARC and in resolving Indo-Pakistan conflicts lies prospect of SAARC