South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC comprises 3% of the world's land area, 21% of the world's population and 5.21% (US$4.47 trillion)[3] of the global economy, as of 2021.
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
In other languages:
Bengali: দক্ষিণ এশীয় আঞ্চলিক সহযোগিতা সংস্থা Dari: اتحادیه همکاریهای منطقهای جنوب آسیا Dzongkha: ༄ ལྷོ ཨེསིཨ་ རེ་གིཨོནལ་ ཅོཨོཔེརཏིཨོན་ ཀོ་མི་ཏི། Hindi: दक्षिण एशियाई क्षेत्रीय सहयोग संगठन Maldivian: ދެކުނު އޭޝިޔާގެ ސަރަޙައްދީ އެއްބާރުލުމުގެ ޖަމިއްޔާ Nepali: दक्षिण एसियाली क्षेत्रीय सहयोग सङ्गठन Pashto: د سویلي اسیا لپاره د سیمه ایزې همکارۍ ټولنه Sinhala: දකුණු ආසියාතික කලාපීය සහයෝගිතා සංවිධානය Tamil: தெற்காசிய நாடுகளின் பிராந்தியக் கூட்டமைப்பு Urdu: جنوبی ایشیائی علاقائی تعاون کی تنظیم
Bengali: দক্ষিণ এশীয় আঞ্চলিক সহযোগিতা সংস্থা Dari: اتحادیه همکاریهای منطقهای جنوب آسیاDzongkha: ༄ ལྷོ ཨེསིཨ་ རེ་གིཨོནལ་ ཅོཨོཔེརཏིཨོན་ ཀོ་མི་ཏི། Hindi: दक्षिण एशियाई क्षेत्रीय सहयोग संगठन Maldivian: ދެކުނު އޭޝިޔާގެ ސަރަޙައްދީ އެއްބާރުލުމުގެ ޖަމިއްޔާNepali: दक्षिण एसियाली क्षेत्रीय सहयोग सङ्गठन Pashto: د سویلي اسیا لپاره د سیمه ایزې همکارۍ ټولنهSinhala: දකුණු ආසියාතික කලාපීය සහයෝගිතා සංවිධානය Tamil: தெற்காசிய நாடுகளின் பிராந்தியக் கூட்டமைப்பு Urdu: جنوبی ایشیائی علاقائی تعاون کی تنظیم
দক্ষিণ এশীয় আঞ্চলিক সহযোগিতা সংস্থা
দক্ষিণ এশীয় আঞ্চলিক সহযোগিতা সংস্থা
༄ ལྷོ ཨེསིཨ་ རེ་གིཨོནལ་ ཅོཨོཔེརཏིཨོན་ ཀོ་མི་ཏི།
दक्षिण एशियाई क्षेत्रीय सहयोग संगठन
दक्षिण एसियाली क्षेत्रीय सहयोग सङ्गठन
දකුණු ආසියාතික කලාපීය සහයෝගිතා සංවිධානය
தெற்காசிய நாடுகளின் பிராந்தியக் கூட்டமைப்பு
Kathmandu, Nepal
English
8 December 1985
5,099,611 km2 (1,968,971 sq mi) (7th)
6.8
336.1/km2 (870.5/sq mi)
2022 estimate
2022 estimate
SAARC was founded in Dhaka on 8 December 1985.[4] Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The organization promotes economic development and regional integration.[5] It launched the South Asian Free Trade Area in 2006.[6] SAARC maintains permanent diplomatic relations at the United Nations as an observer and has developed links with multilateral entities, including the European Union. However, due to the geopolitical conflict between India and Pakistan and the situation in Afghanistan, the organization has been suspended for a long time, and India currently cooperates with its eastern neighbors through BIMSTEC.[7][8]
SAARC Disaster Management Centre[edit]
The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Disaster Management Centre (SDMC-IU) has been set up at Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM) Campus, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Eight Member States, i.e., Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are expected to be served by the SDMC (IU). It is entrusted with the responsibility of serving Member States by providing policy advice, technical support on system development, capacity building services and training for holistic management of disaster risk in the SAARC region. The centre also facilitates exchange of information and expertise for effective and efficient management of disaster risk.
Political issues[edit]
Lasting peace and prosperity in South Asia has been elusive because of the various ongoing conflicts in the region. Political dialogue is often conducted on the margins of SAARC meetings which have refrained from interfering in the internal matters of its member states.[56] During the 12th and 13th SAARC summits, extreme emphasis was laid upon greater cooperation between SAARC members to fight terrorism.[57][58]
The 19th SAARC summit scheduled to be held in Pakistan was called off as India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan decided to boycott it due to a terrorist attack on an army camp in Uri.[59][60] It was the first time that four countries boycotted a SAARC summit, leading to its cancellation.[61][62]
SAARC has generally been ineffective at achieving enhanced regionalism.[63]
SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme[edit]
The SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme was launched in 1992. The leaders at the Fourth Summit (Islamabad, 29–31 December 1988), realizing the importance of people-to-people contact among SAARC countries, decided that certain categories of dignitaries should be entitled to a Special Travel document. The document would exempt them from visas within the region. As directed by the Summit, the Council of Ministers regularly kept under review the list of entitled categories.
Currently, the list included 24 categories of entitled persons, which include dignitaries, judges of higher courts, parliamentarians, senior officials, entrepreneurs, journalists, and athletes.
The Visa Stickers are issued by the respective Member States to the entitled categories of that particular country. The validity of the Visa Sticker is generally for one year. The implementation is reviewed regularly by the Immigration Authorities of SAARC Member States.[71]
