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International Desk //

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) activities are not progressing due to Pakistan’s cross-border terrorist activities. This is the main reason why the organization is not dynamic.

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made this complaint in a speech in New Delhi today on Saturday. Jaishankar will visit Pakistan in the middle of this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. A few days before this visit, his comments are important.

In the Sardar Patel lecture organized by the IC Center for Governance in New Delhi today, Jaishankar said, ‘SARC is not moving forward at the moment. The reason for no SAARC meeting is quite simple. A member state of SAARC has committed cross-border terrorist acts against at least one other member of the organization. The country may be pursuing similar actions against more member states. Terrorism is not acceptable in any way. Despite having a global approach to it (terrorism), if our neighboring country continues to do it, normal business cannot continue within SAARC. That’s why no meeting of SAARC has been held in the last few years. But that does not mean that regional activities have stopped.

India’s foreign minister said, ‘Actually, regional coordination activities have increased in the Indian subcontinent in the last five-six years. During this period we saw India’s participation (increasing). If you look at Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka today, you will see that new roads have been built and ferries have been launched there. Fertilizers are being exported to these countries (from India). I would say that the (development and cooperation) happening in neighboring countries is due to (our) ‘neighbourhood first policy’.”

In the speech, Jaishankar spoke about regional issues as well as the ongoing global situation. Expressing concern about the conflict in the Middle East, he said, “The Middle East is now a cause of great concern and deep fear.” The conflict is spreading in the region. First there was a terrorist attack. In response, a counter-attack began. We saw what happened in Gaza. Now we are seeing counter-attacks between Lebanon-Israel and Israel-Iran.

After talking about the Middle East conflict, the Indian foreign minister also talked about the Ukraine-Russia war. He highlighted the various aspects of how these wars are harming everyone in this era of globalization. Jaishankar expressed his concern.