NEW DELHI: India has hinted at sabotaging this year’s South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit or pulling away from the initiative altogether.
The issue of organising the SAARC summit was discussed in a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal’s premier KP Sharma Oli, who is in New Delhi on a three-day visit.
“The prime minister (Modi) mentioned that he very enthusiastically participated in the Kathmandu (SAARC) summit, but given the current state of play where there is cross-border terrorism — and this is a disruptive force in the region. It is difficult in such circumstances to proceed with such initiatives,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters, according to the Times of India.
SAARC summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the chair of the association.
The last summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014. The following meeting, expected to take place in Islamabad in 2016, had to be postponed after several members, led by India, pulled out on the pretext of ‘security’.
India had expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances” following the terrorist attack
But after a deadly attack on an Indian army camp in Uri in occupied Kashmir on September 18, 2016, India stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan.
Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to attend ths summit following India’s nudging.
Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative.
During his visit to Kathmandu last month, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had sought Oli’s support for convening the SAARC summit in Islamabad this year.
In a speech during a visit to the SAARC Secretariat, Abbasi had said Pakistan has always strived to make SAARC a vibrant vehicle for regional cooperation based on the principle of sovereign equality.
