Bangladesh urges India to support meeting of regional SAARC bloc

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Bangladesh asked India to extend its support to convene a meeting of high-level officials of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), according to the state-run media.

No such SAARC meeting has been held since 2016 when India pulled out of the Islamabad summit.

The demand by Dhaka was made during a meeting on Sunday by Bangladeshi Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on the sidelines of the 8th Indian Ocean Conference in the Omani capital Muscat, state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported.

Hossain emphasized the “need for convening the SAARC Standing Committee meeting and requested India’s support on the matter.”

The last standing committee meeting was held in March 2016 in Nepal’s Pokhara region. It brought together foreign secretaries of the member states which include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Since its establishment in 1985, the SAARC has generated significant hope among its member countries, which together represent over a fifth of the global population.

Its member states together account for about 5.21% of the global economy, valued at around $4.47 trillion.

Originally established with the promise of greater regional integration and cooperation, nearly three decades later, the organization is largely stagnant, and South Asia is viewed as one of the most disconnected and underdeveloped regions in continental Asia.

The last SAARC leaders’ summit, which Islamabad was scheduled to host in 2016, had been canceled after an attack on an Indian army camp in Uri, Indian-administered Kashmir.

The SAARC holds a summit of its leaders every two years and the last such summit was held in the Nepali capital Kathmandu in 2014.