During her visit to India last August, Foreign Minister Arju Deuba raised the issue of holding a SAARC meeting with her Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. As soon as Rana talked about the SAARC meeting, Jaishankar got a blunt answer mixed with questions - "If someone came to your country and killed people, would there be a meeting?"

The South Asian Regional Organization (SAARC), established in 1985, is entering its 40th year. However, it has been inactive for a decade .

Nepal is now the president country. Since the summit of SAARC has not been held for a long time, Nepal has not been able to hand over the chairmanship. Nepal is constantly trying to hold the summit as the chairmanship and the secretariat of SAARC are located in Kathmandu. As a continuation of that, Deuba raised the subject of the SAARC Summit in her meeting with Jaishankar. However, she got a clear answer that India is still reluctant about the SAARC meeting.

Minister Rana narrated the conversation with Jaishankar in the International Relations and Tourism Committee of the House of Representatives a while ago, "When I went to India in September, I openly raised the issue of the SAARC Summit". As I raised it, Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar's reply came. He said - if someone came to your country and attacked, if your citizens were killed, would there be a meeting? After that, I didn't have anything to say.

She said that even though she tried hard to hold the summit, there was no success. Even during the United Nations meeting, she informed that despite trying for a sideline meeting of foreign ministers of SAARC countries in New York, it was not possible.

'As the chairman of SAARC, we are in a difficult position . It has been tried time and time again. But, we don't just say . It is written in the charter of SAARC - the summit will be held only after the agreement of all the member states," she said in the committee, "Let's hope, the summit will be held after a better political environment in South Asia. It was not stopped because of us or due to lack of effort on our part.'

As a SAARC country, Nepal proposed to hold a sideline meeting at the SAARC foreign minister level during the 79th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) held in New York last October. Bangladesh also took the initiative for that . However, India's reluctance did not succeed. Attempts at sideline meetings have been failing for a few years now. The SAARC summit, which should be held every two years, has not been held since November 2014 in Kathmandu.

The 18th summit decided to hold the 19th summit in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, in November 2016 . However, the conference was marred by the terrorist attack in India on 18 September 2016, three months before the scheduled summit. After the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri in which 18 Indian soldiers were killed, India blamed Pakistan and said it would not participate in the summit in Islamabad. Since then, the SAARC Summit has been mired in uncertainty. Relations between India and Pakistan have not improved. SAARC's charter stipulates that an annual summit will be held. However, after it did not continue, it was announced that the meeting would be held in two years from the 18th summit.

Deuba's conversation with Jaishankar before the parliamentary committee on December 29 shows that the future of SAARC is uncertain. Jaishankar has been holding Pakistan responsible for SAARC not being active many times from public platforms. India will not be ready for the SAARC meeting as long as one member is involved in terrorist activities, he said. "The SAARC conference is not possible because the situation has not changed" is the official answer given by the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2016.

Nepali ex-ambassador to India Nilambar Acharya did not get a positive response from the government apparatus and officials regarding the SAARC meeting until he spent two and a half years in Delhi. He is considered to have had his say on SAARC issues at all levels, including Foreign Minister, Foreign Secretary. However, he says that he did not get a promising answer from anyone. He said that India has been continuously reluctant about the SAARC meeting.

SAARC has Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka member countries of South Asia. The Secretariat of SAARC is in Kathmandu. From the summit of 2016, the chairmanship of SAARC was in the hands of Pakistan . However, since the conference could not be held, Nepal could not hand over the presidency.

Former Secretary General of SAARC diplomat Arjun Bahadur Thapa says that SAARC will not get dynamic unless India, a large and influential country in South Asia, wants it. "Until there is some kind of agreement between India and Pakistan, it is considered that SAARC has reached a sick state," he says, "SAARC has reached a situation where it is difficult to survive and cannot even die due to suffocation." Due to that situation, this organization is becoming useless  But he said there is no option to wait. _{file photo}

SAARC was established with the ambitious goal of developing agriculture, alleviating poverty, facilitating transportation, increasing trade and running a single currency in South Asian countries. However, due to frequent tensions between India and Pakistan, this organization has become loose. 

This is not the first time that SAARC has been affected by the tension between the two countries. Due to the Kargil war, the 11th SAARC Summit had to wait for four years. Before that, SAARC was also affected by nuclear weapons tests by both India and Pakistan. In 2014, the eighteenth summit was held in Kathmandu after a gap of three years. The problem of not meeting on time is an old one. But, there has never been a gap of 10 years like now . And, there is no sign of a conference in the near future,' said Thapa, 'this gap is increasing and questions are being raised about the legitimacy of the organization.' A study conducted by Cambridge University's Department of Politics and International Affairs has considered 10 years of inactivity as a very serious turning point for any international intergovernmental organization. The study said that an organization can be considered dead if it has not worked for 10 years or more. If the study is to be believed, the future of SAARC is in danger if there is no decisive dialogue or decision as soon as possible.

Former ambassador Arjun Karki says his 10 years of inactivity for any intergovernmental mechanism certainly does not augur well for his future. He expressed concern that the long gap seen in the summit will negatively affect the organization. However, as the member countries are still giving the necessary budget and staff for the SAARC secretariat, there is no need to lose hope, according to his analysis.

India's role in the establishment of SAARC is considered less. In the early days, the planners of its establishment mentioned Bangladesh and Nepal.

India has been suspicious of SAARC since the beginning. India has already suspected that neighboring small countries will surround themselves using the SAARC platform and that Pakistan can take advantage of it. Acharya, the former Nepalese ambassador to India, says that India's role was less in the beginning of the establishment of SAARC and the role of Bangladesh and Nepal was more.

"If the beginning of the establishment had been from India, the situation of SAARC would have been different now," he says, "However, due to Pakistan's presence in SAARC, India has not been enthusiastic about this organization from the beginning." India's reluctance towards SAARC is also considered to be China's entry after Pakistan.

At the 13th summit held in Dhaka in November 2005, China was admitted as an observer to SAARC at the proposal of Nepal. Afghanistan became a new member of SAARC on India's proposal. At that time, Nepal proposed that China should be kept as an observer.

"He could not oppose or disagree with the proposal from Nepal without understanding India's wishes," Acharya said, "The proposal made by Nepal seemed to tease India." It was seen as an attempt to reduce India's influence on the SAARC forum. That incident also served to raise doubts about SAARC in India  He understands . 

However, the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was attending the SAARC summit. During his tenure from 2004 to 2014, Singh kept the SAARC situation at ease. In India, the Bharatiya Janata Party won the elections in 2014. Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. He gave importance to SAARC by inviting heads of all SAARC countries including Pakistan to his swearing-in ceremony. However, he has participated in the summit only once while he is in the 11th year of his third term. After participating in the conference held in Kathmandu in the first year of becoming the Prime Minister, SAARC was not his priority. However, Acharya says that there is still room to hope for the future of the organization as India has no intention of ending it or separating from it.

India's focus seems to be on developing relations with powerful western countries and improving the damaged relations with China. "It seems that India, which is emerging as a world power, wants to stay with big and strong countries," he said, "It seems that it wants to be more active in Shanghai Corporation, BRICS, Quad, G-20". That's why SAARC may not be his priority.' However, he believes that India, which is on the verge of becoming a world power, is making a mistake by not using SAARC's platform.

In terms of economic, social or contact with the world, India's role in the member of SAARC was greater. He said that he could have used this forum to suit his own interests, if not, he would not have allowed it to go against him, India is losing that opportunity. 

India has been sharing the platform with Pakistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting. Jaishankar went to Pakistan to attend the SCO meeting in October last year. The previous year in May 2023, the then foreign minister of Pakistan Vilawal Bhutto came to Goa to participate in the SCO meeting.

Former Ambassador Acharya says that since India is sharing a platform with Pakistan in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the same can be expected about SAARC. However, he also considers a gap of 10 years in the activity of any organization as a dangerous situation. A long-term gap also builds a kind of ego. The slower it goes, the harder it will be," he said, "even after 10 years, such an ego can cause problems to wake up SAARC. The longer the gap is, the more difficult it will be to improve.

He also understands that the election of the Secretary General of SAARC two years ago and the continued financial support show the desire to keep SAARC alive in the member countries. Bangladeshi diplomat Mohammad Golam Sarwar was appointed as the Secretary General of SAARC two years ago.

Apart from the tension between India and Pakistan, the upheaval in Afghanistan, the youngest member of SAARC, is also seen to affect its future. In August 2021, the Taliban seized power there by force of arms. The Taliban-led government has not been recognized by any country in the world yet. India has been increasing contact with the Taliban government in the name of humanitarian aid. Another challenge for SAARC is to share the platform with the Taliban government, which has not been recognized by anyone.

Diplomat Karki, who is also a former ambassador for America, is of the opinion that any member state of any regional or intergovernmental organization should not obstruct the organization itself by citing bilateral or geopolitics. He believes that the United Nations is an example of that. Countries that are at war with each other also participate there. Aa- keeps his words . This principle is also applicable for other organizations,' he said, 'in that sense, other member states who are counseling or lobbying for that need to be active, including creating pressure for it.'

To strengthen the relationship between South Asian countries and Although SAARC was established to identify and solve problems, it has not been able to give results accordingly. SAARC's charter says that no bilateral issue can be raised. Likewise, the consensus of all member states is required to hold a summit or take a decision on any issue. However, due to the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan, SAARC is suffering the consequences of bilateral relations. "Sometimes the multilateral forum is not affected by bilateral tensions, although it seems so," said Acharya, the former ambassador to India, "but after expressing dissatisfaction, the work should have gone smoothly." Since not, it naturally is the question of contributing to the future and NBSP; India seems to want to separate the common formation with the neighbors and nbsp..

Nepal had discussed a network between SAARC nations in 2014 and NBSP;. However, in 2015, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Bhutanese are signed in BBI project to start services only for four countries and nbsp;. India has been emphasizing it by India and Nbsp; 5