JOIN USLike its predecessor summits, the 18th SAARC Summit at Kathmandu proved to be a low-yielding event. Just one agreement of consequence – a framework pact on energy cooperation, which aims at creating a seamless power grid across South Asia – was reached.
Even this agreement would not have been possible had officials not spent several hours cajoling Pakistan to come on board. Agreements providing for motor vehicle movement and railway linkages across South Asia were within reach. These would have improved connectivity between and among SAARC member-countries, paving the way for greater interaction and understanding among their people and boosting trade and tourism. However, Pakistan’s intransigence prevented these agreements from being signed. SAARC officials have promised to sign these pacts within the next three months but its deferring doesn’t bode well. Past experience indicates that SAARC’s postponed pacts remain on the back-burner endlessly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart did well to keep the focus of their speeches on South Asia. However, their ice-cold interaction hijacked the summit and reduced it to an India-Pakistan show. To impress hardliners at home, the two leaders refused to make even eye contact with each other and ended up appearing like petulant schoolboys. Patient nudging by other leaders forced them to shake hands eventually. It was the leaders of SAARC’s geographically smaller member-countries who emerged taller from the Kathmandu summit.
Since the idea of regional cooperation was first mooted in 1980, SAARC has little to show in terms of concrete achievements. Its members agreed on a preferential trade agreement in 1993 and a free trade pact is in force since 2006. Yet, intra-SAARC trade accounts for just a dismal 5.2 per cent of the combined foreign trade of its member-countries. High tariffs and restrictions on movement of goods are to blame. South Asia has the dubious distinction of being the world’s most deprived region and the least gender-sensitive. SAARC could have done so much to alleviate human suffering in the region.
Sadly, it has not gone beyond the ritual declaration of commitment at summits to eliminate poverty and illiteracy. Even natural disasters do not stir its leaders to sink their differences and reach out to each other meaningfully. The India-Pakistan rivalry is holding back SAARC from realising the fruits of regional cooperation. Delhi must take the initiative to pull the regional grouping out of the rut it has stayed in for decades. Its frustration with Pakistan’s obstructive behaviour towards any attempt at building cross-border connections is understandable. But replicating Islamabad’s immaturity is not the answer.