Regional integration pegged to SAARC revival

Regional integration pegged to SAARC revival

Part of: GS Prelims –Polity and GS-II- International relations

In news:

Sri Lanka’s former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said :

• Postponement of the Kathmandu SAARC Summit in 2017 due to heightened tensions between India and Pakistan had brought the regional grouping “to a standstill”.
• Successful regional integration both economic and security depends on SAARC becoming fully functional at the highest levels
• BIMSTEC is not a substitute for SAARC

• Proposed  an ‘Economic Integration Road Map (EIRM)’ : a “sub-region”, consisting of the five southern States of India, Sri Lanka (Population of 300 million people and a combined GDP of over $500 billion)

From Prelims Point of View:

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

• Established with the signing of the SAARC Charter Dhaka
•  Headquarters and Secretariat Kathmandu, Nepal.

Framework of the SAARC:

• Respect for the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and mutual benefit.

SAARC comprises of eight member States

• Afghanistan
• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Sri Lanka

Observers to SAARC, are: (i) Australia; (ii) China; (iii) the European Union; (iv) Iran; (v) Japan; (vi) the Republic of Korea; (vii) Mauritius; (viii) Myanmar; and (ix) the United States of America.

BIMSTEC

• Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional multilateral organisation.

Members:   

• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Nepal
• Sri Lanka
• Myanmar
• Thailand

Features

• Connects South and Southeast Asia
• Connects ecologies of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal.

Aims

• To create an enabling environment for rapid economic development

• Accelerate social progress , Promote collaboration on matters of common interest in the region.
• Sub-regional organization came into being in 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration
• Creating an enabling environment for the rapid economic development of the sub-region.
• Encouraging the spirit of equality and partnership.
• Promoting active collaboration and mutual assistance in the areas of common interests of the member countries
• Accelerating support for each other in the fields of education, science, and technology, etc.