China, Pakistan, Bangladesh creating a Saarc-replacement

Pakistan is working with China on a proposal to establish a new regional organisation that could potentially replace the now-defunct South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), according to a report in The Express Tribune of Pakistan.

The report quoted diplomatic sources familiar with the development and claimed that talks between Islamabad and Beijing are now at an advanced stage as both sides are convinced that a new organisation is essential for regional integration and connectivity. The paper also cited sources and claimed that the new organisation could potentially replace the regional bloc SAARC, which comprises India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

A recent trilateral meeting between Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh in Kunming, China, was part of those diplomatic manoeuvres, the report claimed, adding that its goal was to invite other South Asian countries, which were part of SAARC, to join the new grouping.

The main purpose of the new organisation is to seek greater regional engagement through enhanced trade and connectivity, the newspaper said. It added that if the proposal is materialised, it would replace the SAARC, which has been suspended for a long time due to the India-Pakistan conflict.

The SAARC has been inactive since 2016. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. However, after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances". Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Bhutan also pulled out, citing concerns about terrorism and regional interference. The summit was cancelled—and it has not been rescheduled since.

However, according to a news agency, Bangladesh’s interim government had dismissed the idea of any emerging alliance between Dhaka, Beijing, and Islamabad, saying the meeting was not “political". “We are not forming any alliance," foreign affairs adviser M Touhid Hossain had said.