SAARC Foreign Ministers meeting cancelled Pak wants Taliban on board – Free PDF Download

SAARC meeting cancelled

• The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia

Read More About: SAARC Countries

• Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• The SAARC comprises 3% of the world’s area, 21% of the world’s population

• The SAARC was founded in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The organization promotes development of economic and regional integration

• The SAARC was founded by seven states in 1985. In 2005, Afghanistan began negotiating their accession to SAARC and formally applied for membership in the same year.
• The issue of Afghanistan joining SAARC generated a great deal of debate in each member state, including concerns about the definition of South Asian identity because Afghanistan is considered a Central Asian country, while it is neither accepted as a Middle Eastern country, nor as a Central Asian country, or as part of the Indian subcontinent.
• The SAARC member states imposed a stipulation for Afghanistan to hold a general election; the non-partisan elections were held in late 2005. Despite initial reluctance and internal debates, Afghanistan joined the SAARC as its eighth member state in April 2007
• 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.
• It was for the first time that four countries boycotted a SAARC summit, leading to its cancellation

•  A meeting of foreign ministers of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, slated to be held on Saturday in New York, has been cancelled.
• Pakistan wanted the Taliban to represent Afghanistan in the SAARC meet.
• India along with some other members objected to the proposal and due to lack of consensus or concurrence, the meeting was cancelled.
• Nepal was the host of the meet, which is annually held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
• Taliban has not been recognised by India to date. The new regime in Kabul is still not recognised by the world and top cabinet ministers are blacklisted by the UN.
• Amir Khan Muttaqi is the acting foreign minister of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan and he is unlikely to attend any UN and affiliated meetings.
• the majority of members in SAARC agreed that an empty chair can be kept for Afghanistan during the meet. However, Pakistan did not agree and the meeting was called off.
• Russia and China also do not, as yet, recognise the Taliban.
• The new Taliban regime has “no authority”, the Indian government functionary told NDTV and stressed the group could not, therefore, stake claim to speak on global platforms.
• present status of SAARC, he said: “It is like India-Pakistan relations – no war no peace.
• member-countries have to borrow a few pages from organisations such as ASEAN and European Union. Where borders have become softer and cooperation is through projects.
• the military-centric borders such as Durand Line, Radcliffe Line, and McMohan Line had actually driven the wedge permanently between the member-countries and dismantled the history and cross-cultural diversity. “Borders are viewed as national security threat. For the SAARC model to succeed, borders should be made softer and people-centric projects should be taken up

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