Bangladesh, Pakistan explore ways to breathe life back into SAARC

United Nations, New York — Leaders of Bangladesh and Pakistan have discussed ways to revive the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), a regional bloc of eight countries that has remained inert since 2016, mainly due to tensions between the amalgam’s key heavyweights Pakistan and India.

"During the meeting with Pakistani leader (Shehbaz Sharif), our chief adviser (Muhammad Yunus) discussed reviving SAARC which has remained no-functional for about a decade," Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Yunus, told TRT World on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

"Dr Yunus argued that SAARC can emerge as a true platform for regional cooperation and can work for some two billion people who live in South Asia," he said.

Established in 1985, SAARC comprises of eight-member countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. And the Nobel laureate and Bangladesh’s interim leader Yunus has urged Pakistan to help revitalise the bloc during his recent bilateral meeting with Pakistani PM Sharif on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

"Both leaders agreed that there was a need to work closely at bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels for the progress and development of the peoples of both countries," Pakistan’s mission to the UN said in a statement after their meeting.

Yunus emerged as the interim leader of Bangladesh after student protests in August ended the 15-year iron-fist rule of Sheikh Hasina, who resigned and fled to neighbouring India, with which she had cultivated close ties for years that also saw boom in Bangladesh’s economy. India is Bangladesh's largest trading partner in South Asia, with bilateral trade of around $16 billion.

Yunus has demanded New Delhi to extradite Hasina.

After her flight to India, Hasina reportedly blamed United States for her ouster. But the US said it had no role in her removal, calling allegations of Washington's interference in Bangladesh’s internal affairs "simply false."

Even though the Nobel laureate has powerful connections in the United States, Yunus, according to Bangladeshi officials, is trying hard to bolster regional initiatives such as SAARC.

"He's speaking about it, obviously to all the South Asian nations," Alam said.

"Dr Yunus is saying it can be a very fantastic regional cooperation like the European Union. You know during the Second World War, Germany and France (EU members) were fighting each other. I think we can also create an atmosphere for peace and stability," Alam added.

Alam said Bangladesh’s interim leader is also speaking with India about reviving the bloc.

Tensions between SAARC members

Ties of Pakistan and Bangladesh remained tense during Hasina’s rule. But the new government wants to breathe fresh life into the frayed ties.

Pakistan and Bangladesh were once a single country, called East and West Pakistan, in 1947. In 1971, Bangladesh became independent and their ties remained fractured. During Hasina’s rule, which prosecuted several members of the Jamaat-e-Islami party — a religious group which wanted to stay with Pakistan — rifts in the relations between Islamabad and Dhaka widened further.

With Yunus emerging as the new Bangladesh leader in recent months, both sides appear to be moving toward normalisation of ties.

Yunus' bid to revive SAARC, however, faces many hurdles.

Ties between Pakistan and India remain tense, primarily over their row on the Kashmir region, which remains divided into Pakistan and India-administered Kashmir.

At the UNGA plenary, both sides raised the conflict in the Himalayan region and traded warnings.

Islamabad wants a Taliban official to represent Afghanistan’s interim government in SAARC meetings. But none of the SAARC countries have so far recognised the Taliban government in Kabul.

For the fifth consecutive year in 2024, the SAARC Council of Ministers failed to meet on the sidelines of UNGA.

Instead, on the sidelines of UNGA, five of the eight SAARC members met at the summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (or BIMSTEC), a regional grouping comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.