SAARC at Twenty-Five: An Incredible Idea Still in Its Infancy

The SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit is often described as being a mere photo opportunity for south Asian leaders who should actually be using the comatose organisation to reinvent regional cooperation in a globalised world. Such pessimism is inevitable if one takes stock of the progress that SAARC has made over the period of time. There exists a SAARC convention to deal with all issues that have a certain salience in the regional context. Yet, even 25 years after its inception the organisation is found wanting both in terms of forming a regional identity and of forging any sense of a regional belongingness.