SAARC is a regional intergovernmental organization established in 1985 with 8 member states located in South Asia. It aims to promote economic and regional integrated cooperation as well as ensure collective prosperity, peace and progress among member nations. However, SAARC faces challenges like conflicts between members, lack of unity, ineffective implementation of programs, and security issues hampering trade. The 19th SAARC summit scheduled in Islamabad was postponed due to members like India, Afghanistan and Bhutan withdrawing over security concerns exacerbated by terrorism in the region.

1. South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation

2. •SAARC is an eco-political organization of 8 South Asian
nations.
• established on 8 December 1985 .
• largest regional organization in the world.
•Secretary -general- Amjad Hussain Sial from Pakistan since Mar 01, 2017
•The Secretaries-General of SAARC are appointed from
Member States on the basis of the principle of rotation in
alphabetical order for a period of three years.
• headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal

3. Idea proposed by Bangladeshi
President Ziaur Rahman .
Foreign secretaries of the seven
countries met for the first time April
1981.
A series of meetings followed .
Adopted the Declaration on South
Asian Regional Cooperation (SARC)
in 1983.
First SAARC Summit.

7. Welfare
Economic growth
Social progress
Cultural development
Self-reliance
Strengthen cooperation
Maintain peace
Understanding & appreciation of problems

8. Eliminate absolute poverty and hunger.
Achieve universal primary education.
Promote gender equality and empower women.
Reduce child mortality.
Build upon maternal health.
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Ensure environmental sustainability.
Develop an transnational partnership for development.

9. • Council
•Council of Ministers
•Standing Committee
•Programming Committee
•Technical Committee
•Secretariat

10. REGIONAL CENTERS
The SAARC Secretariat is supported by following Regional Centers
established in Member States to promote regional co-operation
1.SAARC Agriculture Center (SAC),Dhaka,Bangladesh
2.SAARC Meteorogical Reserch Center(SMRC),Dhaka,Bangladesh
3.SAARC Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS
Center(STAC)Kathmandu,Nepal
4.SAARC Documentation Center(SDC)New Delhi,India
5.SAARAC Human Resources Development
Center(SHRDC)Islamabad,Pakistan

11. 6. SAARAC Coastal Zone Management Center(SCZMC),Maldives
7. SAARC Information Center(SIC),Nepal
8 SAARC Energy Center(SEC),Pakistan
9. SAARAC Disaster Management Center(SDMC),India
10. SAARC Forestry Center(SFC) Bhutan
11. SAARC Cultural Center(SCC)Sri Lanka

12. No. Country Host City Dates
1st Bangladesh Dhaka DEC 7-8, 1985
2nd India Bangalore NOV 16-17, 1986
3rd Nepal Kathmandu NOV 2-4, 1987
4th Pakistan Islamabad DEC 29-31, 1988
5th Maldives Male NOV 21-23, 1990
6th Srilanka Colombo DEC 21, 1991
7th Bangladesh Dhaka APR 10-11, 1993
8th India Delhi MAY 2-4, 1995
9th Maldives Male MAY 12-14, 1997
10th Srilanka Colombo JUL 29-31, 1998
11th Nepal Kathmandu JAN 4-6, 2002
12th Pakistan Islamabad JAN 2-6, 2004
13th Bangladesh Dhaka NOV 12-13, 2005
14th India New Delhi APR 3-4, 2007
15th Srilanka Colombo AUG 1-3, 2008
16th Bhutan Timphu APR 28-29, 2010

13. • SAFTA
The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) is an agreement reached on 6 January 2004 at
the 12th SAARC summit in Islamabad, Pakistan. It created a free trade area of 1.6 billion people
in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (as of 2011,
the combined population is 1.8 billion people). The seven foreign ministers of the region signed a
framework agreement on SAFTA to reduce customs duties of all traded goods to zero by the
year 2016.
•Food Security Reserve.
An agreement on establishing SAARC Food Security Reserve was reached during the third
SAARC Summit 1987, which came into force on August 12, 1988. It was meant to provide
reserve of food grains in emergencies
•Advantages of Least Developed Countries.
It has provided forum for bilateral and regional agreements to the small poor nations for
collaboration among themselves for development.

14. • SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme.
• The SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme was launched in 1992. The leaders at the Fourth
Summit (Islamabad, 29-31 December 1988), while realizing the importance of having
people to people contacts, among the peoples of SARC countries, decided that certain
categories of dignitaries should be entitled to a Special Travel document, which would
exempt them from visas within the region. As directed by the Summit, the Council of
Ministers regularly kept under review the list of entitled categories.
• Currently, the list included 24 categories of entitled persons, which include Dignitaries,
Judges of higher courts, Parliamentarians, Senior Officials, Businessmen,
Journalists, Sportsmen etc.

15. • Domination of India
India has 70% area amongst all SAARC countries. Also remaining small
countries does not share border with each others except for Pakistan-
Afghanistan.
• Large variety regional and cultural differences.
• They lack financial resources and advance technologies.
• Internal problems .
• Bilateral disputes and differences.

16. CONT.
• Most of the countries are poor except for India and lack full fledged
democratic structure.
• Food Security Reserve failed to meet the need of Bangladesh.
• Suffers from an acute resource crunch.

17. 19TH SAARC SUMMIT
• The 19th SAARC summit is scheduled diplomatic
conference.
• Planned to be held in islamabad.
• Due to Uri terrorist attack, India announced its boycott.
• Later Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan also pulled out of
the summit
• Afghanistan announced its withdrawal from the summit,
stating, "Due to increased level of violence and fighting
as a result of imposed terrorism on Afghanistan,
(President) Ashraf Ghani with his responsibilities as the
Commander-in-Chief will be fully engaged, and will not
be able to attend the Summit”

18. • Bhutan also withdrew from the summit. The country stated that the
"recent escalation of terrorism in the region has seriously
compromised the environment for the successful holding" of
the summit. The Bhutanese government added that it also shared
the concerns of some member states on the "deterioration of
regional peace because of terror“
• Nepal, the current chair of SAARC, urged that "a conducive
environment be created soon to ensure the participation of all
member states in the 19th SAARC summit in line with the
spirit of the SAARC charter".
• Pakistan has postponed the conference to a further date,
citing Article X (General Provisions) of the SAARC Charter that all
decisions at all levels shall be taken on the basis of unanimity.
Thus, the conference can only go ahead with all member states
present

19. SAARC: CHALLENGES
• Conflict and mistrust among SAARC member countries
• Internal Conflict
• Geo-political imbalance/ imbalance of power
• Lack of unity among SAARC countries
• Lack of effective implication of SAARC programmes
• SAARC organizations are not really regional and not effective
• Role of Secretary General
• SAARC Charter need to change
• SAARC Connectivity: Road, Air, Sea
• SAFTA

20. SECURITY: CONTRADICTION
• India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal have been significantly
contributing to peacekeeping mission in the world under UN,
but these countries have been failed to established peace and
security in their own region.
• South Asia is economically poor region the world – more than
half of the world poor lives in this region, but it has big amount
of military expenditure.
• India and Pakistan have 93% of total military spending in
South Asia and ‘have the capacity to kill more than 100 million
people immediately and many hundreds of millions dying
subsequently from radiation-related illness’ (Barry and Hiris
1998, Hussain, 2008)
• In terms of per capita income, India and Pakistan have 142 and
119 position in the world, but both countries have first and
10th ranks in terms of arms imports (Haq 1997, Hussain 2008)
• Both countries have been suffering from poverty,
unemployment, environment and HIV Aids problem.

21. CONFLICT
• Conflict between India and Pakistan hamper the intra-regional
trade in the region.
• Pakistan is the major producer of cotton, with excellent quality and
even cheaper price to compare international market. India import
cotton from South Korea and other far countries and ignore the
neighbour country Pakistan. (Jain 1998)
• Pakistan imports almost $50 million worth of aluminium from
Europe and Southeast Asia whereas the price of Indian aluminium
is much lower than the international price (Khan 1994, Jain 1998)
• Pakistan import tea from Kenya, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia,
and Sri Lanka, where per kilogram price are $3.25, $3.8, $2,46,
$2.98, and 2.9 respectively. But, in India the price of tea is $2.42
per kilogram and has better in quality (Jain 1998)

22. CRITICISMS OF SAARC
• ‘Coffee shop’ of SAARC leaders
• Instead of focus on economic growth, poverty reduction,
infrastructure development, good education and health
services, SAARC spend many years to make plans,
programmes, agreements and slogans.
• Policy makers does not think about implementation of the
programme. There is no effective mechanism to implement
SAARC programme. SAARC policy are not effective eg:
SAARC Youth Year, Child Year, Women Year etc.
• SAARC regional organizations are not really regional.

23. CONCLUSION
• India role is important to make the SAARC effective
• If a strong country lead the regional organization, regional
organization would be more effective.
• Lack of strong influential leadership, regional organization
cannot be work properly.
• Instead of passive organization, other countries can accept
the leading role of India in SAARC
• Through deeper integration of SAARC countries, South Asia
would be strong, peaceful and economically prosperous
region of the world