Regional Organisations

KEY POINTS

ASEAN’s success Vs SAARC’s failure

Political Reasons

·         ASEAN’s greatest success has been its ability to deftly resolve disputes.

·         E.g. In the early years, its unity was challenged by the Philippines-Malaysia dispute over Sabah, but the founding members found a peaceful mechanism to mitigate opposing claims.

·         In contrast to ASEAN, SAARC a geographically proximate regional grouping stuck in the quagmire of regional politics and rivalry.

·         Political squabbles, deep mistrust and military conflict between India and Pakistan have frustrated regional cooperation.

·         E.g. India boycotted the 19th SAARC summit eventually resulting in cancellation of the summit.

Economic Reasons

·         Trade between ASEAN has focussed on promoting rapid economic growth and modernisation.

·         It has created the Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA), which ensures liberalisation and protection of cross-border investments operations.

·         On the other hand, trade amongst the SAARC members stands at 3.5% of their total volume of trade.

·         Initiatives under the South Asian Free Trade Association have failed to make much headway.

Cultural Reasons

·         ASEAN has called on its member nations to waive entry requirements for other member states.

·         A feasibility study has been conducted on the development of a rail link to enhance seamless connectivity among the ASEAN nations to boost intraregional trade and people-to-people connectivity.

·         On the other hand, the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme only allows certain categories of dignitaries to be exempt from visas, excluding ordinary citizens from accessing unimpeded travel in the region.

·         It is difficult for Indians to enter Pakistan and vice versa.

·         SAARC infrastructural problems further hinders connectivity.

Recommendations

·         India has to go the extra mile to make SAARC work because India is 70% of South Asia, and has common borders with seven SAARC nations.

·         South Asian countries have to work on the common values and shared historical perceptions of the peoples of the region, consciously addressing essential political differences.

·         SAARC should strive to enhance investment activity between its member states, and not merely trade.

·         Broader popular support at the grass-root level must be vastly improved by encouraging freer legal movement of people for economic and cultural tourism reasons by minimising immigration procedures.

    Both ASEAN and SAARC are regional groupings founded to promote economic growth and regional stability in their respective regions. The contrast in their progress towards achieving their foundational goals is due to the following factors.

• SAARC is affected by military conflicts esp. between India and Pakistan, two of the largest economies and political squabbles whereas the ASEAN members mitigate these issues through peaceful dispute resolution mechanism
• Mutual distrust among SAARC members is halting the economic integration whereas through collective investment and effective cooperation ASEAN is promoting connectivity and trade growth
• Through confidence building measures such as EAST ASIA summit , ASEAN regional Forum ASEAN is gaining investment from developed countries whereas SAARC lacks such forum
• Political instability, interference in internal affairs, terrorism are other factors which affects SAARC cooperation which is minimal in ASEAN organisation

MEASURES TO INCREASE SAARC's EFFECTIVENESS

• Cooperation between India and Pakistan and creation of strong leadership from the bigger economies
• Development of preventive diplomacy and settlement of disputes through peaceful engagement
• Promoting SAFTA through frequent dialogues for creating an integrated market
• Confidence building measures to gain foreign investments
• Political community to solve intra regional instability and terrorism

Through mutual cooperation SAARC has the ability to raise as a strong regional forum in South Asia.