The 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference concluded a couple of weeks ago in Kathmandu, Nepal, without any solid outcome. However for anyone who has followed SAARC developments, it was nothing unusual. They would say it has always been like that.

SAARC was formed in 1985 with lofty ideals—to promote political and economic cooperation among South Asian countries. However, even after almost 30 years, there are numerous trade and entry point barriers, major political disagreements and a lot of other asymmetric relationships among SAARC countries.ww

At this year’s summit, on top of the agenda were three connectivity agreements on road, rail and energy. However, only one -- the agreement on energy -- was signed. The two other agreements were put into the backburner, which should be now full of past agreements. Nothing tangible was discussed such as how to tackle the terrorism issues faced by member countries -- India, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan. At the same time no decision was taken to create deeper regional integration among the member countries in terms of economic and financial activities. Though a target was set to form some sort of an economic community in the next 15 years, it is likely to take much longer given the snail’s pace SAARC has moved at so far. The Kathmandu Declaration, with which the summit concluded, consisted of certain lofty ideals such as an ocean-based economy, good governance, tackling of cybercrimes and so on, but we are yet to see the delivery of such promises.

Though there haven’t been any major breakthroughs during the 18th SAARC summit, the financial commitment announced by China, a SAARC observer country, was pivotal in understanding SAARC’s role in the present geo-political context.  At the Kathmandu summit, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin promised to expand trade in the region to US$150 billion and pledged investments to the tune of US$30 million on investment for infrastructure in the next five years and 10,000 scholarships for young South Asians as a mark of China’s commitment to the region. It is no secret that China has made serious inroads into the South Asian region in their attempt to revive the ancient Silk Route.

Therefore, if India and Pakistan, being the two most powerful countries in the SAARC, couldn’t get their act together and resolve the issues they have been had since its inception, China would have a bigger say within the SAARC region.  It was in fact the vacuum that was created by the longstanding India-Pakistan issue that allowed China to make serious inroads into the region. The political sensitivities between the two countries have affected all the other countries in the region as well and it has made SAARC completely redundant. These other SAARC countries, including Sri Lanka, have sought Chinese help to build their economies, which ideally should have come either from India or Pakistan.

India has quite explicitly stated its displeasure on the Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean.  But Pakistan on the other hand recommends more Chinese presence in the regions as well as SAARC, a sentiment which could be 50 percent genuine and 50 percent to annoy India. Like Sri Lanka, several other SAARC countries have turned to China for economic assistance.

In the past, the need for a regional cooperation agreement among the South Asian countries may have been influenced by the commonalities among the countries in terms of culture, history, etc., apart from the notion of economic integration. But now the geo-political context of the South Asian region has dramatically changed with aggressive moves by China into the region. Hence China should now be the common factor in forming a stronger SAARC. If India or any other South Asian country wants China to be kept out of regional affairs, a stronger SAARC would be the best way to do it.