South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
| |||
| Membership | 8 member states 2 observers | ||
| Secretariat Headquarters | Kathmandu | ||
| Established | December 8, 1985 | ||
| Secretary General | Chenkyab Dorji | ||
| Official website | www.saarc-sec.org | ||
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, proposed by Ziaur Rahman, the then-president of Bangladesh, was established on December 8, 1985. SAARC is an association of eight countries of South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These countries comprise an area of 5,127,500 km2 and a fifth of the world's population.
SAARC encourages cooperation in agriculture, rural development, science and technology, culture, health, population control, narcotics control and anti-terrorism. SAARC has intentionally stressed these "core issues" and avoided more divisive political issues, above all the Kashmir dispute which bitterly divides the two largest member states, India and Pakistan. However, political dialogue is often conducted on the margins of SAARC meetings.
In 1993, SAARC countries signed an agreement to gradually lower tariffs within the region. Nine years later, at the 12th SAARC summit at Islamabad, SAARC countries devised the South Asia Free Trade Agreement which created a framework for the establishment of a free trade zone covering 1.4 billion people. This agreement went into force on January 1, 2006.
Membership
Current members:
Observer nations:
The United States and South Korea have also made formal requests to be given observer status, and the European Union is shortly expected to do likewise.
List of SAARC Summits
- December 7-8, 1985 at Dhaka
- November 16-17, 1986 at Bangalore
- November 2-4, 1987 at Kathmandu
- December 29-31, 1988 at Islamabad
- November 21-23, 1990 at Malé
- December 21, 1991 at Colombo
- April 10-11, 1993 at Dhaka
- May 2-4, 1995 at New Delhi
- May 12-14, 1997 at Malé
- July 29-31, 1998 at Colombo
- January 4-6, 2002 at Kathmandu
- January 2-6, 2004 at Islamabad
- November 12-13, 2005 at Dhaka
Areas of Cooperation
- Agriculture and Rural Development
- Health, Population Activities & Poverty
- Women, Youth and Children
- Environment and Forestry
- Science and Technology and Meteorology
- Human Resources Development
- Transport
- Disaster management
- Removal of terrorism
Future Membership
On 22 February 2005, the Foreign Minister of Iran, Kamal Kharrazi, indicated Iran's interest in joining SAARC, saying that his country could provide the region with "East-West connectivity".[1]
The People's Republic of China has also been suggested as a possible SAARC member, such membership being encouraged by Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, India is more reluctant about the prospect of Chinese membership, while Bhutan does not even have diplomatic relations with China.[2] At the 2005 summit in Dhaka, member states decided to give China and Japan observer status.
In April 2006, the United States of America and South Korea made formal requests to be granted observer status. A posiitive response was given by SAARC though the detail for these two countries' observer status have not yet been finalised. The European Union has also indicated interest in being given observer status, and is expected to make a formal request for the same to the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting on July 2006. [3] [4]
Results of Dhaka 2005 Summit
On November 13, 2005, the Dhaka Summit issued a declaration to admit the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as a member, and to accord observer status to China and Japan. [5] The nations also agreed to organize development funds under a single financial institution with a permanent secretariat, that would cover all SAARC programs ranging from social, to infrastructure, to economic ones.
Comparison with other Regional blocs
Template:Most Active Regional blocs