Twenty Eight Years of SAARC: What Does It Say about Regional Cooperation in South Asia?

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Abstract
As a regional organization, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in 1985 for the objectives of ‘promoting peace, stability, amity and progress in the region’. However, after more than 28 years of SAARC, South Asia is economically poor and a region of political unrest. South Asia is the home to 1.5 billion people with half (over 1 billion) of the world's poor people who live on under $2 per day. Out of eight, six member countries of SAARC - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - have been suffering from internal conflict. In this background, the presentation will discuss the achievements of SAARC and analyze the challenges and difficulties for deep regional cooperation among SAARC member countries.