China and Pakistan plan new group to replace SAARC

Pakistan and China are working on a proposal to establish a new regional organisation that could potentially replace the now-defunct South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), according to a media report on Monday.

Quoting diplomatic sources familiar with the development, the Express Tribune newspaper reported that talks between Islamabad and Beijing are now at an advanced stage as both sides are convinced that a new organisation is essential for regional integration and connectivity.

Citing sources, the paper said that this new organisation could potentially replace the regional bloc SAARC, which comprises India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

A recent trilateral meeting between Pakistan, China and Bangladesh in Kunming, China, was part of those diplomatic manoeuvres, they said, adding that its goal was to invite other South Asian countries, which were part of SAARC, to join the new grouping.

However, Bangladesh's interim government had dismissed the idea of any emerging alliance between Dhaka, Beijing and Islamabad, saying the meeting was not “political”.

“We are not forming any alliance,” foreign affairs adviser M Touhid Hossain had said.

According to sources, India would be invited to the new proposed forum, while countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Afghanistan are expected to be part of the grouping.

The main purpose of the new organisation is to seek greater regional engagement through enhanced trade and connectivity, the newspaper said.

It added that if the proposal is materialised, it would replace the SAARC, which has been suspended for a long time due to the India-Pakistan conflict.

Its biennial summits have not taken place since the last one in Kathmandu in 2014.

The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances”.

The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet.