NEW DELHI, June 29: India needs to play a pivotal role in the functioning of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), given its geographical location and the fact that the country shares its border with most of the countries, said experts at a Round table here.
The unilateral concessions provided by India to its neighbours in the SAARC group of countries of the region has contributed greatly to the process of integration in the region, the panelist said. These unilateral initiatives have gone beyond SAFTA and has reduced the negative list, the panelist said.
They agreed that India can provide unilateral concessions to its neighbours if it is required.
The Round table was organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) this week to discuss the challenges before regional cooperation that has hindered integration.
The panelists highlighted major hurdles in the functioning of the regional organization, which has not been able to achieve its potential due to diverse interests of the member countries, bureaucratic hurdles, and lack of accountability to the people of the region.
They were of the view that bilateral relations would be important to connect the SAARC countries. SAARC has made progress over the period of time though the progress has been slow, so the role of SAARC in regional integration could not be dismissed.
The discussion centered around the questions as to why India had not been able to play a larger role in south Asia, and what were the costs of not doing so.
The panelist also discussed the challenges to regional cooperation and whether the security challenges could be mitigated by greater economic cooperation. They also talked about the role of the state and how to balance the increasing role of state in the making of India’s neighbourhood policy.
The panelists comprised, Director General – IDSA, Dr Arvind Gupta; Senior Fellow – CPR Dr Rajiv Kumar; Senior Fellow, TERI, Dr Nitya Nanda; Senior Fellow, ICRIER, Dr Nisha Taneja; Research Fellow, IDSA, Dr Smruti S Pattanaik and and Prof Mahendra Lama of SIS, JNU.
(UNI)
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