UPSC Articles
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.
