• Since 2014, no SAARC summit has taken place which makes the organisation dysfunctional.
• The 19^th SAARC summit of 2016 was planned to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan but got cancelled after an attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir.
• Increasing hostility between India and Pakistan also has made SAARC ineffective.
• As the Revival of SAARC in the current scenario is extremely difficult, one of the options that India has is to focus on other regional grouping such as BIMSTEC.

SAARC

• On 8 December 1985 in Bangladesh, SAARC was established by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• Since then, December 8 is commemorated as SAARC Charter Day.
• Afghanistan later joined the SAARC.
• It is an intergovernmental organisation that aims to promote economic growth in South Asia.

Significance of SAARC

• It is coherent with government’s ‘neighbourhood first’ policy.
• SAARC is only intergovernmental organisation with a pan-South Asia reach.
• India can judiciously use SAARC to serve its interests in South Asian region.

Challenges and drawbacks of SAARC

• SAARC has failed to accomplish most of its objectives.
• Charter of SAARC functions on the principle of unanimity.
• It gives each of the eight member-countries a veto power.
• Pakistan is obstructing work of SAARC by repeatedly vetoing several initiatives like motor vehicles agreement.
• Motor vehicles agreement was aimed at improving regional connectivity.
• South Asia is still extremely poor and least integrated region in the world.
• Intraregional trade (less than 5%) and investment in South Asia are lower than other regional blocks like- Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Deterioration in India-Pakistan relations has led to incapacity of SAARC.
• Weak SAARC will weaken other regional institutions like South Asian University (SAU).
• South Asian University is important to strengthen India’s soft power in the region.

Counties adopting ‘bilateralism’ due to failure of SAARC

• Due to SAARC’s failures, member countries have turned to bilateralism, which in turn has adversely affected SAARC.
• Bilateralism is an easier option since it calls for dealings between only two countries, whereas SAARC requires one country to deal with seven countries.
• Thus, bilateralism decreases the countries’ dependence on SAARC to achieve their objectives.

Should countries rely on ‘bilateralism’ or ‘regionalism’?

• Regionalism can deliver prosperity in the South Asian region.
• Regionalism has brought immense success in other parts such as East Asia and Africa.
• Looking at ASEAN’s success in regional integration, lawyers Julien Chaisse and Pasha L. Hsieh have developed the concept of a new regional economic order.
• It is a process through which developing countries search for a trade-development model, based on incrementalism and flexibility.
• This is different from the neoliberal model laid down by the Washington Consensus.
• In recent years, BIMSTEC has gained popularity among South Asian countries as a platform for regional cooperation.

BIMSTEC

• It is an intergovernmental organisation established in 1997.
• It comprises five South Asian nations- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka and two ASEAN countries- Myanmar and Thailand.
• Pakistan is not a BIMSTEC member.
• In recent years, India is concentrating more on BIMSTEC than SAARC.
• Result -After 25 years, BIMSTEC has adopted its Charter in 2022.
• BIMSTEC Charter is better than the SAARC Charter.
• Example: Article 6 of the BIMSTEC Charter is related to Admission of new members to the group.
• This will help in addition of countries such as the Maldives.

Loophole in BIMSTEC

• BIMSTEC charter lacks flexible participation scheme for economic integration similar to ASEAN Minus X formula.
• It allows two or more ASEAN members to initiate negotiations for economic commitments.
• No country enjoys veto power to thwart economic integration between willing countries.

Suggestions to revive BIMSTEC

• India should initiate- flexible ‘BIMSTEC Minus X’ formula in the BIMSTEC Charter.
• This can allow India and Bangladesh or India and Thailand to conduct their bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) under BIMSTEC.
• This could strengthen BIMSTEC by enabling gradual expansion of these binding commitments to other members.
• A high-quality FTA that offers better economic integration will be an ideal step.
• India should explore legal ways to move successful SAARC institutions such as SAU to BIMSTEC.
• BIMSTEC should adopt New regional economic order model and imbibe it in its Charter.

         Regionalism can deliver prosperity in South Asian region when multilateralism is weakening. Since, South Asia cannot abandon regionalism so reviving SAARC by making political changes into it and updating its Charter is an ideal way forward.  Stronger BIMSTEC will help India in maintaining influence over South Asian region and will increase economic prosperity of the overall region.