SAARC ( south east association for regional cooperation ) establish on December 8,1985 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It’s headquarter located in Kathmandu, Nepal.
SAARC was established with the objectives to promote regional integration, economic growth and social progress.
It comprises of eight member – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
SAARC Committees
- Programming Committee
- Standing Committee
- SAFTA ( South Asian Free Trade Area )
- SAARC Development Fund
- SAARC Food Bank – ( ensure food security )
- SAARC Disaster Management Centre ( SDMC )
- SAARC Cultural Center
- Technical Committees
- SAARC Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS Center
- SAARC Coastal Zone Management Center
- SAARC Social Charter – to address social issues like poverty, health, and education
- SAARC Arbitration Council
- SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme – to ease travel for designated categories.
SAARC aims to promote regional cooperation among the member like infrastructure, technology, tackling social issues and trade.
Although the political tension between the India and Pakistan hampered the SAARC functioning.
Recent development
- SAARC development indicates a pause into its working. There have been no SAARC summits since 2014, and the 19th summits which was scheduled to be held in Pakistan in 2016 was cancelled due to political tension.
Structure of SAARC Summits – it’s is a Biennial meeting of heads of state or government.
COM ( Council of Minister ) – Comprises of foreign minister responsible for formation policy.
- BIMSTEC as a parallel organization – due to pause in the functioning of of SAARC, India divert its focus on other grouping like BIMSTEC ( Bay of Bengal initiative for multi sectoral technical and economic cooperation ) comprises of 7 member countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Pakistan is not a member of BIMSTEC which generate plus point for India to cooperate with other member countries without any political tension
- Afghanistan as a member of SAARC also a point of contention soon after the takeover by Taliban in 2021.
- Currently, RBI also revises SAARC currency swap agreement with the RBI, ensuring alignment with both national and Regional cooperation.
- SAARC – Japan Special Fund
In March 2025, the embassy of Japan in Nepal and SAARC signed the addendum of revised memorandum on guideline for the SAARC – Japan Special Fund for the purpose of JENESYM.
Why in News ?
After the Pahalgam attack ( 22.04.2025 ) that left 26 dead, the India government on the very next day after the meeting of the cabinet committee on security ( CCS ) announced that Pakistan nationals will not be permitted to travel to India under the SAARC visa exemption scheme ( SVES ). Any SVES visas issued in past are deemed cancelled and Pakistani nationals currently in India under SVES has to leave India within 48 hours.
What is SVES ( SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme ) ?
SVES was launched in 1992, and decided that certain dignitaries from SAARC countries should be given this to exempt them from visas within the region. These Dignitaries were characterized into 24 categories including Judges of higher courts, Senior Officials, Parliamentarians, Journalist, etc.
The validity of this visa stickers is only for one year and is reviewed regularly by the Immigration Authorities of SAARC member states.
Conclusion
SAARC serves as a viable platform to cooperate on various grounds like trade, infrastructure, technology and business. It also serves mechanism to collaborate on issues like hunger, poverty, malnutrition, trade disputes, terrorism, insurgency, etc. Despite of being inefficient after 2014 its existence still matters a lot. Nations should work that ensures more cooperation and trust building.