India Should Play a Pivotal Role in the Functioning of SAARC

June 28, 2013

New Delhi: India needs to play a pivotal role in the functioning of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), given its geographical location and the fact that the country shares its border with most of the countries, this was discussed during a roundtable on the prospects of regional cooperation in South Asia on June 27, 2013. The Round table was organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) to discuss the challenges before regional cooperation that has hindered integration.

The discussion centered around the following questions:

1. Why has India not been able to play a larger role in south Asia? What are the costs of not doing so?
2. Are the challenges to regional cooperation structural?
3. What are the security challenges? Can these be mitigated by greater economic cooperation?
4. What should be the role of the state and how to balance the increasing role of state in the making of India’s neighbourhood policy?

Discussing SAARC, the panelists highlighted major hurdles in the functioning of the regional organization, which has not been able to achieve its potential due of diverse interests of the member countries, bureaucratic hurdles, and lack of accountability to the people of the region.

It was agreed that India can provide unilateral concessions to its neighbours if it is required. India has already taken certain unilateral initiatives and has gone beyond SAFTA and has reduced the negative list. It has enhanced the process of integration through grid connectivity with the neighbouring countries. Bilateral relations would be important to connect the SAARC countries. SAARC has made progress over the period of time though the progress has been slow. Therefore role of SAARC in regional integration cannot be dismissed.

The panelists comprised, Director General – IDSA, Dr Arvind Gupta; Senior Fellow – CPR, Dr Rajiv Kumar; Senior Fellow –TERI, Dr Nitya Nanda; Senior Fellow – ICRIER, Dr Nisha Taneja; Research Fellow – IDSA, Dr Smruti S Pattanaik; and Prof Mahendra Lama of SIS, JNU.