Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus calls for revival of SAARC

Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on Friday called for the revival of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, during his address at the United Nations General Assembly.

Established in 1985, SAARC is an intergovernmental organisation of eight South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan.

However, the grouping has been inactive for almost a decade because of tensions between India and Pakistan. Its last biennial summit was in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2014.

The 2016 summit was scheduled to be held in Islamabad but was cancelled after India withdrew following the Uri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan had also declined to participate.

On Friday, Yunus said in his address that there is no alternative to regional cooperation among neighbours except for shared development.

He added that SAARC had made notable progress in its early years and had laid a strong foundation for regional collaboration.

He said that despite political deadlock, the grouping’s institutional structure had remained intact.

“We believe SAARC still holds the potential to deliver welfare to the hundreds of millions in our region,” Yunus said.

This came days after his meeting on Tuesday with Sergio Gor, the United States’ special envoy for South and Central Asia and ambassador-designate to India, where...

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