NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said today SAARC is a “jammed” vehicle as “one country” is not connected to the other seven members of the South Asian regional bloc on the key issue of terrorism, in an obvious reference to Pakistan.
He also said that unlike South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the other seven-nation regional grouping BIMSTEC has members that are “broadly aligned” and “articulate similar aspirations”.
His comments come at a time when India is trying to make the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), a group comprising countries in South Asia and South East Asia, more relevant as an alternative to SAARC.
“Neighbours need to be connected, but if you look at the vehicle on which all had expectations (it) was SAARC. But the SAARC vehicle has sort of jammed because of two big issues – terrorism and connectivity… Where all countries are not on the same page, but specifically one country is not on the same page with others,” Jaishankar said without naming Pakistan. (AGENCIES)
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