India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has apparently made it clear that there is no prospect of the South Asian countries grouping Saarc if Pakistan does not shun its terrorist activities.
India will not tolerate a situation where "terrorism happens by night and trade happens by day," he said in a veiled attack on Pakistan when asked about the Saarc.
He was responding to the question about not hearing anything on Saarc at the India International Centre on Wednesday, NDTV reports.
“You have not heard very much about Saarc because, in the last few years, there isn't very much to hear about. We have not had meetings because you have a member of Saarc who doesn't conform to all the basic requirements of what a good membership is, and that is today an obstacle reality for the Saarc to meet. You know I said we cannot continue with acts of terrorism and say the cooperation will continue to happen nevertheless," Jaishankar was quoted as saying.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), which was established in 1985.
Even after three decades of its existence, Saarc is often regarded as the “talking shop” due to its failure to take any collective steps.
Initiatives such as Saarc – Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA) which was crucial for harnessing regional connectivity could not be signed due to Pakistan's opposition at the 18th summit in Kathmandu in 2014. All decisions in Saarc have to be made on the consensus basis.
Since then, there was no summit as member states declined to participate in the 19th one which was scheduled to be held in Pakistan in 2016 due to “lack of conducive regional environment.”
The Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar spoke about having good relations with other neighbouring countries except Pakistan, because he said, New Delhi cannot have a normal relationship because of cross-border terrorism.
“I would say Pakistan obviously is the exception when it comes to the neighbourhood. Again, it needs very little explanation. The fact is that we cannot allow terrorism to be normalized. We cannot allow that to become the basis for getting us into discussions with Pakistan. So, I don't think to me, it's a fairly common-sense proposition," Jaishankar said.
"In fact, if anything, I'm still a little perplexed by why we had not arrived at this position earlier. But we have arrived at it now. And the issue really is that until there is a departure from I would say an abrogation of this policy of cross-border terrorism. Clearly, it is not possible to have a normal relationship with that particular neighbour," he added.
Earlier, in December 2022, Jaishankar in Varanasi said that the Saarc currently is not active because one member of the Saarc believes that dealing with "neighbours is compatible with the factors of cross-border terrorism."
