It is a sad commentary on an organisation that at its silver jubilee it should be reminded that the glass is still half full as far as its stated aims and actual achievements are concerned. That is what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh very correctly told the sixteenth summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in Bhutan this week. The challenge before Saarc, Dr Singh said, is to “translate institutions into activities, conventions into programmes, official statements into popular sentiments”. No one will disagree with Dr Singh that summit declarations cannot substitute for regional cooperation and integration on the ground of which there is still very little evidence in South Asia. The Indian prime minister’s view that regional cooperation should enable freer movement of people, goods, services and ideas and that, in the specific South Asian context, would have to be based on a shared view of the future, if not the past, is well taken. If Saarc’s glass remains half empty, or half full depending on how one would like to see it, it is because the process of regional cooperation has not yet found an emotional connect among the people of the region. Saarc is a body in search of a soul. Official-level meetings and government-sponsored events and organisations alone do not create a regional association.
Any successful regional group needs a shared security concern or increased people-to-people (P2P) and business-to-business (B2B) linkages. These generate the required emotional connect. Organisations like Asean and the EU came out of shared security concerns during the Cold War era and then moved on to create strong P2P and B2B links. Saarc began as a trade union of India’s mid-sized neighbours and has been in perpetual search of a region-wide cause for existence. In recent years, a regional free trade agreement, a regional development fund and a South Asian university have been created. Some infrastructure projects have come up to create links. But bilateral disputes and the growing influence of China haunt the organisation.
One way out of this low-level equilibrium would be for India to be more proactive in promoting regional integration and India is trying to do that, despite all its domestic economic and political constraints. But the real answers lie beyond economics. Unless India has better political relations with key neighbours like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Saarc’s glass will remain half empty. What India needs is more out-of-the-box thinking on how to improve relations with its neighbours. Getting Saarc out of South Asia, making it a “Southern Asia” grouping, with China, Iran, Myanmar and whoever else wants to join it, could be one way out. It is a path that a G-20 power like India should feel confident to take. India has gained little from a purely “South Asian” association, it can lose little from an open-ended “Southern Asian” association. In the end, India’s challenge is at home. Consistent high growth, increased share of regional and global trade and investment flows, and a more open India will by themselves fill the glass.
