India-Pakistan rivalry makes SAARC non-functional: Discussion

Speakers including security experts and academics at a discussion on Sunday said that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation unlike such other regional forums had become a non-functional entity due to the rivalry between India and Pakistan.

Underlining a need for increased connectivity and cooperation among the South Asian countries, they said Bangladesh would become more important for its geopolitical location.

They said that all the countries in the region could benefit from the SAARC through cooperation and connectivity had it been active this time when the South Asia having 25 per cent of the world’s total population was becoming a hotbed in the changing global order due to its position in the Indo-Pacific and the Bay of Bengal.

The Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies, an independent think-tank, organised the roundtable on ‘Emerging Security Challenges: South Asian Security Landscape’ at a city hotel with BIPSS distinguished fellow Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury as the moderator.

The speakers said there were all instruments to address crucial issues like poverty, violent extremism and connectivity under the SAARC, which was established with the signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka in 1985.

In his opening remarks, Iftekhar, also former caretaker government adviser for foreign affairs, said, ‘SAARC has remained inactive due to rivalry between India and Pakistan.’

He said that the definitions of sovereignty and security were changing in the new world order as China and India as well were becoming ‘new global powers.’

With the changing global order, Iftekhar said there are new conflicts as well as new alliances in the region.

Niloy Ranjan Biswas, associate professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, Farzana Mannan, associate professor of International Relations at Jahangirnagar University, and retired brigadier general and former associate editor at the Daily Star Shahedul Anam Khan, spoke as panelists at the discussion.

Niloy Ranjan discussing the geostrategic significance of the region said that it was a diverse region home to two nuclear powers — India and Pakistan — and has experienced cooperation and dissonance while  the idea of deterrence has significantly been tested in the South Asia.

Farzana Mannan highlighted non-traditional security issues like climate change impacts, food security, disasters and health as the region’s economy largely dependent on agriculture.

Speaking on hard security, Shahedul Anam said that every single country in the South Asia had its own security compulsions and perceptions.

Many of the problems in the region were externally created, he mentioned.

He pointed out that the region was the only one in the world where two nuclear powers share borders.