BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

THE TWELFTH SUMMIT AND THE FUTURE OF SAARC

Author: C. Raja Mohan

DOI Link: DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2004v25n4a2

ABSTRACT

Judging the achievements of SAARC in terms of its own past, it is easy to proclaim the Twelfth SAARC Summit at Islamabad in January 2004 a success. But when compared to progress on regional economic integration elsewhere in the world, the SAARC process must be assessed as too slow and very painful. The framework agreement on launching the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) concluded at Islamabad Summit is meagre in its scope and substance when seen in the light of the regional economic integration happening elsewhere in South Asia's neighbourhood. Nonetheless, the Islamabad Summit of SAARC has laid the foundation for thinking more radically about the future of regionalism in South Asia. If it comes up with a bolder agenda of regional integration -not in terms of words, but actions -the Dhaka Summit of 2005 will signal that the political momentum acquired at Islamabad is real and the SAARC has finally turned a corner. Many opportunities beckon the region today. But the ability of SAARC to grasp them will depend upon some sustained hard work at the bureaucratic level and some political vision at the top.