The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), established in 1985, was envisioned as a platform to foster regional cooperation, integration, and development among its eight member states: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Despite its early promise and ambitious charter goals, SAARC has faced persistent geopolitical, institutional, and structural challenges that have undermined its effectiveness and rendered it largely moribund in recent years.
This essay identifies and evaluates the key measures required to revive the relevance and operational effectiveness of SAARC, focusing on overcoming political impediments, enhancing functional cooperation, reforming institutional mechanisms, and promoting inclusive regionalism. It argues that SAARC’s revival is both possible and necessary in a rapidly transforming global and regional context, especially if it adopts a pragmatic, depoliticized, and development-oriented approach to cooperation.
I. Depoliticizing the SAARC Agenda: Managing Bilateral Tensions
The single most significant impediment to SAARC’s functioning has been the India–Pakistan rivalry, which has often paralyzed consensus-based decision-making.
Measures:
- Institutional firewalling of SAARC from bilateral conflicts: Like ASEAN’s approach to managing disputes, SAARC could create mechanisms that insulate regional cooperation from political deadlocks, ensuring that developmental and humanitarian issues are not held hostage to geopolitical rivalry.
- Establishment of an independent conflict mediation council under SAARC’s aegis to facilitate dialogue without directly engaging in mediation.
- Observer and associate mechanisms could be leveraged to bring in non-member dialogue partners, creating space for issue-based coalitions outside contentious bilateral dynamics.
By prioritizing low-politics areas such as health, education, trade, and disaster management, SAARC can rebuild trust incrementally, allowing space for dialogue to flourish over time.
II. Institutional Reform and Procedural Efficiency
SAARC’s consensus-based decision-making and reliance on annual summits have hampered its agility and responsiveness.
Measures:
- Flexible decision-making frameworks, such as “coalitions of the willing” or variable geometry models, would allow sub-groups of member states to pursue cooperation even when unanimity is absent.
- Enhancing the mandate and capacity of the SAARC Secretariat: The current secretariat lacks autonomy, resources, and enforcement mechanisms. Strengthening its role can help coordinate programs, monitor implementation, and act as a knowledge hub.
- Regular ministerial and technical-level meetings should be institutionalized beyond the infrequent summits, ensuring continuity and bureaucratic momentum.
By modernizing its institutional architecture, SAARC can evolve from a symbolic platform to a functional organization capable of implementing policies and programs.
III. Deepening Economic Integration and Intra-Regional Trade
South Asia remains one of the least integrated regions economically, with intra-SAARC trade hovering below 5% of total trade, compared to over 25% in ASEAN.
Measures:
- Reinvigoration of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement by reducing non-tariff barriers (NTBs), harmonizing standards, and simplifying customs procedures.
- Development of regional value chains in textiles, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and digital services to promote complementarities rather than competition.
- Establishment of a South Asian Investment and Infrastructure Fund to channel joint resources into cross-border projects in energy, connectivity, and logistics.
- Digital integration through harmonized e-commerce regulations, fintech cooperation, and digital public infrastructure sharing.
Economic interdependence can serve as both a confidence-building mechanism and a development accelerator, especially if trade and investment are framed as non-zero-sum opportunities.
IV. Sectoral Cooperation in Shared Challenges
Despite political tensions, SAARC countries face common transboundary challenges—from climate change and pandemics to natural disasters and migration.
Measures:
- Creation of regional disaster response and early warning systems, modeled on ASEAN’s AHA Centre.
- Strengthening the SAARC Disaster Management Centre and the SAARC Meteorological Research Centre for collaborative research and response.
- Institutionalizing the SAARC Pandemic Preparedness and Health Cooperation Framework, especially after COVID-19, including joint vaccine production, surveillance systems, and telemedicine.
- Coordinated approaches to climate mitigation and adaptation, especially for Himalayan ecosystems, monsoon systems, and low-lying coastal areas.
By delivering tangible public goods in these domains, SAARC can demonstrate its value to citizens and policymakers, generating political momentum.
V. People-to-People and Civil Society Engagement
SAARC has largely remained a state-centric organization, with limited integration of civil society, academia, and private sector actors.
Measures:
- Expansion of regional educational and cultural exchanges, including university networks, research grants, and youth fellowships.
- Facilitation of cross-border mobility through simplified visa regimes and border cooperation zones.
- Promotion of regional media platforms and think tank dialogues to foster shared narratives, counter stereotypes, and build epistemic communities.
- Strengthening of the SAARC Development Fund to directly support grassroots initiatives in livelihood generation, gender equity, and rural development.
Engaging citizens and civil society can generate bottom-up demand for regionalism, thus supplementing elite-driven initiatives.
VI. Leveraging External Partnerships Strategically
SAARC has maintained a cautious approach to external engagement, but selective partnerships could bolster capacity and legitimacy.
Measures:
- Inviting observer countries (e.g., China, U.S., EU, Japan) to contribute technical expertise and development assistance in non-sensitive areas.
- Partnering with multilateral institutions like the World Bank, ADB, and UN agencies to co-finance programs and build institutional resilience.
- Encouraging South–South and triangular cooperation, drawing lessons from ASEAN, MERCOSUR, and the African Union on regional integration.
External actors, if carefully engaged, can amplify SAARC’s capacities without compromising regional autonomy.
VII. Political Will and Regional Vision
All reforms ultimately depend on political leadership and regional vision.
Measures:
- India, as the region’s largest economy and a de facto hegemon, must exhibit strategic patience and magnanimity, supporting SAARC as a collective regional good rather than a transactional platform.
- Smaller states must also assume proactive roles in norm entrepreneurship, coalition-building, and institutional innovation.
- A renewed SAARC Charter of Action, endorsed at a special summit, could reaffirm commitment to functional cooperation and set benchmarks for reform.
Revitalizing SAARC is not about idealism, but realist pragmatism—recognizing that shared geography necessitates shared governance.
Conclusion
SAARC’s decline is not inevitable. Its relevance can be restored through a pragmatic recalibration of priorities, institutions, and partnerships. In an era of climate uncertainty, technological disruption, and shifting geopolitical alignments, regional cooperation in South Asia is not a luxury—it is an imperative. Reviving SAARC requires depoliticized functionalism, inclusive multilateralism, and the political will to reimagine regionalism beyond the confines of historical enmity and national ego. If reformed effectively, SAARC can still become a vehicle for regional peace, prosperity, and resilience in the 21st century.
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