Daily Times

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established on December 8, 1985 with its Secretariat in Kathmandu, Nepal. All the South Asian states: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, are its founding members. However, Afghanistan joined the group in April 2007.

SAARC is comprised of countries with diverse religion, ethnicities, and cultures. The primary purpose of SAARC was to promote peace and stability in the region. However, according to Ambassador Shamshad Ahmad, “The serious economic and social poverty and challenges that it faces have been compounded by long-standing intra-tensions and unresolved inter-state disputes.” The South Asian region is the most backward, poorest, and conflict-ridden region in the world, primarily due to India-Pakistan enduring rivalry over Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) dispute. Pakistan is not the only state of the region affected due to India’s hegemonic designs, but relatively smaller states like Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka were also subjected to certain mistreatment and interventions from time to time.

SAARC remains dysfunctional due to India’s insistence that it will not attend a Summit if it is held in Pakistan. Secondly, India’s quest for regional leadership with global ambitions are seriously challenged by Pakistan, due to which SAARC has not achieved any of its stated objectives.

Fresh efforts are underway, perhaps on Track-II that PM Modi visits Islamabad in October 2021, to attend a long-delayed SAARC Summit. Should that happen, it may break the ice between the two rivals and motivate them to sit together on a table and seriously talk about the possibilities of peaceful resolution of their disputes to marginalise the probabilities of military engagements.

Fresh efforts are underway to endeavour that PM Modi visits Islamabad in October 2021, to attend a long-delayed SAARC Summit. Should that happen, it may break the ice between the two rivals and motivate them to sit together on a table and seriously talk about the possibilities of peaceful resolution of their disputes to marginalise the probabilities of military engagements

SAARC has immense potential of regional integration through economic cooperation and socio-cultural exchanges. Home to nearly two billion people with extraordinary talent in the fields of information technology, medicine, sports, arts and culture, radio and TV, Cinema, and social media. Indian movies and Pakistani drama serials are watched, and liked world over, unfortunately banned for each other. Cricket is more played and watched in India and Pakistan, but unfortunately not playing against each other. Perhaps it is time to look ahead and at least begin to focus on common grounds. SAARC can have its own cricket council for the development of sports, because five of its members play in International Cricket Council (ICC) events: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Another strength of SAARC lies in its land connectivity. At least six member countries, starting from Afghanistan in the north-west, to Pakistan-India- Nepal-Bhutan and Bangladesh are all connected by land routes, and serve as an effective supply line for goods and services to over 1.9 billion people. India being the largest and in the centre stands to gain the maximum out of good connectivity within the regional countries. India should make its own ‘SAARC Highway’ expanding its ancient Grand Trunk (GT) Road, on the pattern of BRI built by China on the tracks of Old Silk route.

Starting from north-western border of Afghanistan via Kabul and Jalalabad, it should enter via Khyber Pass-Peshawar-Attock-through old GT Road via Lahore to Amritsar-Kolkata-into Bangladesh, up to Myanmar border. Extending it to Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim would further engage more areas and people. In its west, it would give connectivity with Central Asia and Europe, and in its far east, it would connect with South East Asian states through Myanmar.

However, the question remains whether Indian leadership has the vision of connecting with other regional states or prefers to join the Dialogue with extra-regional powers: US, Japan, and Australia, commonly referred as Quad.

SAARC Highway can help accelerate the work on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. TAPI gas pipeline project aims to bring natural gas from Gylkynish and adjacent gas fields in Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. This is being coordinated and facilitated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It is going to be a 56-inch diameter, 1,680 KM long pipeline, which would carry 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan to Pakistan, terminating at Pak-India border, from where India will build its own pipeline to carry the approved amount of gas.

TAPI is an ambitious project. It was conceived in 1990s, but contracted in 2014, while Afghanistan was still under the war clouds. Yet the member states did the stone laying in December 2015 with expected first flow of gas in FY 2023-24. TAPI is expected to provide 500 MMcfd to Afghanistan, and 1,325 MMcfd each to India and Pakistan. This is truly a regional peace pipeline project but entirely dependent on the sustained peace in Afghanistan. The expected project life is 30 years and Afghanistan can benefit immensely from this trans-country peace pipeline which would run through four countries. Back to SAARC Highway, I believe if it were in place, Indians would have received COVID supplies instantly and avoided the catastrophic situation it is facing today. The regional integration is the answer to South Asian woes and SAARC Highway can be a game changer if India takes the initiative.

The writer is the author of the book ‘Nuclear Deterrence and Conflict Management Between India and Pakistan’ published by Peter Lang, New York