Allies Pakistan and China are currently in talks to establish a new regional bloc that could replace the defunct South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), officials said on Monday.
Diplomatic discussions are said to have reached an advanced stage as both Islamabad and Beijing are convinced that a new organisation was needed to bolster regional integration and connectivity, an Express Tribune report said, citing sources in the know.
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The sources added that other SAARC nations would be invited to join the new grouping.
A recent trilateral meeting on June 19 between Pakistan, China and Bangladesh at Kunming, China, was said to have the new organisation proposal on its agenda.
The SAARC consisted of India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The bloc, which had been suspended for a long time due to India-Pakistan tensions, has not seen any summits since 2014. Although there was a SAARC summit to be held at Islamabad in 2016, it was called off after the Uri attack.
The India-Pakistan relations, plagued by hostility and suspicion, has always loomed large on SAARC, ensuring that the regional grouping never realises its potential.
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“Cross-border terrorism, blocking connectivity and obstructing trade are three key challenges that SAARC must overcome. Only then will we see enduring peace, prosperity and security in our South Asia region,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had said, clarifying India’s objectives for the bloc after addressing an informal SAARC foreign ministers’ meeting in 2020.
Despite attending the trilateral meeting at Kunming, Bangladesh has since publicly denied that any alliance was being forged, saying that the meeting was “not political”.
