South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOU : South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
| |||
| |||
| Membership | 8 member states 2 observers | ||
| Secretariat Headquarters | Kathmandu | ||
| Established | December 8, 1985 | ||
| Secretary General | Chenkyab Dorji | ||
| Official website | [www.saarc-sec.org] | ||
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, proposed by Ziaur Rahman, the then-president of Bangladesh, was established on December 8, 1985. SAARC is an association of seven countries of South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan is expected to become a member at the Delhi summit which is scheduled for July,2006
SAARC encourages cooperation in agriculture, rural development, science and technology, culture, health, population control, narcotics control and anti-terrorism. SAARC has intentionally stressed these "core issues" and avoided more divisive political issues, above all the Kashmir dispute which bitterly divides the two largest member states, India and Pakistan. However, political dialogue is often conducted on the margins of SAARC meetings.
In 1993, SAARC countries signed an agreement to gradually lower tariffs within the region. Nine years later, at the 12th SAARC summit at Islamabad, SAARC countries devised the South Asia Free Trade Agreement which created a framework for the establishment of a free trade zone covering 1.4 billion people. This agreement went into force on January 1, 2006.
Membership
Current members:
- } (in statu nascendi)
- }
- }
- }
- }
- }
- }
- }
Observer nations:
- }
- (PRC)
List of SAARC Summits
- December 7-8, 1985 at Dhaka
- November 16-17, 1986 at Bangalore
- November 2-4, 1987 at Kathmandu
- December 29-31, 1988 at Islamabad
- November 21-23, 1990 at Malé
- December 21, 1991 at Colombo
- April 10-11, 1993 at Dhaka
- May 2-4, 1995 at New Delhi
- May 12-14, 1997 at Malé
- July 29-31, 1998 at Colombo
- January 4-6, 2002 at Kathmandu
- January 2-6, 2004 at Islamabad
- November 12-13, 2005 at Dhaka
Areas of Cooperation
- Agriculture and Rural Development
- Health, Population Activities & Poverty
- Women, Youth and Children
- Environment and Forestry
- Science and Technology and Meteorology
- Human Resources Development
- Transport
- Disaster management
- Removal of terrorism
Future Membership
On 22 February 2005, the Foreign Minister of Iran, Kamal Kharrazi, indicated Iran's interest in joining SAARC, saying that his country could provide the region with "East-West connectivity".[#endnote_iran]The People's Republic of China has also been suggested as a possible SAARC member, such membership being encouraged by Pakistan and Bangladesh. However, India is more reluctant about the prospect of Chinese membership, while Bhutan does not even have diplomatic relations with China.[#endnote_china] At the 2005 summit in Dhaka, member states decided to give China and Japan observer status.
In April 2006, the United States of America and South Korea made formal requests to be granted observer status. A posiitive response was given by SAARC though the detail for these two countries' observer status have not yet been finalised. The European Union has also indicated interest in being given observer status, and is expected to make a formal request for the same to the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting on July 2006. [link] [link]
Results of Dhaka 2005 Summit
On November 13, 2005, the Dhaka Summit issued a declaration to admit the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as a member, and to accord observer status to China and Japan. [#endnote_afghadmit] The nations also agreed to organize development funds under a single financial institution with a permanent secretariat, that would cover all SAARC programs ranging from social, to infrastructure, to economic ones.Comparison with other Regional blocs
Trade bloc#Most active regional blocs>Most active regional blocs Regional
bloc 1Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member
states 1in millions per capita EU 3,977,487 460,124,266 11,723,816 25,480 25 CARICOM 462,344 14,565,083 64,219 4,409 14+1 3 ECOWAS 5,112,903 251,646,263 342,519 1,361 15 CEMAC 3,020,142 34,970,529 85,136 2,435 6 EAC 1,763,777 97,865,428 104,239 1,065 3 CSN 17,339,153 370,158,470 2,868,430 7,749 10 GCC 2,285,844 35,869,438 536,223 14,949 6 SACU 2,693,418 51,055,878 541,433 10,605 5 COMESA 3,779,427 118,950,321 141,962 1,193 5 NAFTA 21,588,638 430,495,039 12,889,900 29,942 3 ASEAN 4,400,000 553,900,000 2,172,000 4,044 10 SAARC 5,136,740 1,467,255,669 4,074,031 2,777 8 Agadir 1,703,910 126,066,286 513,674 4,075 4 EurAsEC 20,789,100 208,067,618 1,689,137 8,118 6 CACM 422,614 37,816,598 159,536 4,219 5 PARTA 528,151 7,810,905 23,074 2,954 12+2 3 Reference
blocs and
countries 2Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Political
divisionsin millions per capita UN 133,178,011 6,411,682,270 55,167,630 8,604 192 Canada 9,984,670 32,507,874 1,077,000 34,273 13 China (PRC) 4 9,596,960 1,306,847,624 8,182,000 6,300 33 India 3,287,590 1,102,600,000 3,433,000 3,100 35 Russia 17,075,200 143,782,338 1,282,000 8,900 89 USA 9,631,418 296,900,571 11,190,000 39,100 50 1 Including data only for full and most active members
2 The first two states in the World by area, population and GDP (PPP)
3 Including non-sovereign autonomous entities of other states
4 Data for the People's Republic of China does not include Hong Kong, Macau and
regions administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan). ██ ██ During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO DatabaseSee also
References
External links
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
Members: Afghanistan | Bangladesh | Bhutan | India | Maldives | Nepal | Pakistan | Sri Lanka
Observers: China (PRC) | Japan | United States | South Korea
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.
- }
- }
- }
- }
- }
- }
- }
- }