BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

SOUTH ASIA IN 2007: A REVIEW

Author: Mohammad Ashique Rahman

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2008v29n1a2

ABSTRACT

The year 2007 for South Asia has been a mixture of both turmoil and remarkable achievements, making it moretalked about in world affairs. Almost all the nations in the region saw domestic political unrest during the period, and perhaps the single most incident that shook the region just by the end of the year was the assassination of Pakistan’s ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Other significant incidents throughout the year included declaration of the state of emergency in Bangladesh, instabilities in Nepal, stalled peace process in Sri Lanka, and wobblymove towards democratization in Bhutan and Maldives. On a regional plane, there were no significant regional initiatives under the aegis of SAARC, except some regular ministerial meetings and forums, and no initiatives for conflict resolution. For bilateral relationship, India-Pakistan relations maintained the status quo whereas an improvement in Bangladesh-India relationships was evident. Against this backdrop, the paper attempts to provide a review ofall these events and issues that occurred in South Asia in 2007, with a focus on their implications for regional peace and security. Moreover, throughout the discussion, an attempt has also been made to assess the argument that the domestic and/or internal factors became prominent in South Asia in the year of 2007.