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South Asia’s Smaller States Push to Revive SAARC — Again

Will the region’s perpetually squabbling siblings — India and Pakistan — put aside their insecurities to make regional cooperation happen?

History seems to be repeating itself in South Asia as the region’s smaller nations once again demand the revitalization of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Delivering a speech during the Maldives’ Independence Day celebrations on July 26, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu urged SAARC members to return to the negotiating table, resume summits and set aside their differences for the sake of regional peace and cooperation. He added the Maldives was ready to help initiate discussions and mediate among member states.

This is not the first time Muizzu has called for SAARC’s revival. He made a similar call at the 40th Charter Day in December 2025.

Coincidentally, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman attended the Maldivian Independence Day ceremony as a special guest. In February, Rahman told SAARC Secretary-General Golam Sarwar that Bangladesh is committed to the organization and was ready to support its revitalization. Rahman said trade, connectivity, poverty reduction, energy, climate change, food security, education and health are areas that require regional cooperation. In April, Rahman said SAARC’s revival is an important foreign-policy objective of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s government. It was former Bangladeshi President Ziaur Rahman, the current prime minister’s father, who first formally proposed the establishment of SAARC.

The demand for SAARC’s revival is not limited to Bangladesh and the Maldives. In recent days, powerful voices in both Sri Lanka and Nepal have urged for the revitalization of the grouping.

Unsurprisingly, it is the smaller South Asian nations that are keener on SAARC. Unsurprisingly,  India seems reluctant to get the band back together. Its response to the call has been lukewarm, veering towards negative; while Pakistan supports revival, it has not publicly responded to Muizzu’s specific mediation offer.

But students of the region’s history know that the initial skepticism of the two main regional powers, in itself, is not a reason to write off the initiative.

The idea of a pan-South Asian organization is not new. In 1947, leaders of Asian nations met in New Delhi for the Asian Relations Conference to explore regional cooperation, but prospects for South Asian regional cooperation were slim due to the tensions between India and Pakistan.

However, the regional landscape changed in the late 1970s, with leadership changes in India and Pakistan, ASEAN’s formation, and global economic and security trends. These created an environment more conducive to cooperation.

In May 1980, Bangladeshi President Ziaur Rahman formally proposed the establishment of an organization that promotes South Asian economic, social, and technical cooperation. Nepal and Sri Lanka were quick to back this call, but India and Pakistan were suspicious. Both worried that this was a ploy by the other to trap them.

The historical parallels to developments today do not end there. General Ziaur Rahman came to power in 1977, following a series of events that began in a military coup in 1975 that overthrew the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that India supported. The present Bangladeshi government replaced a pro-Indian regime led by Sheikh Mujibur’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina, which was toppled in 2024.

In both periods, a Bangladeshi administration that sought to redefine its relationship with India placed South Asian regional cooperation near the center of its foreign policy.

Beyond, President Rahman’s desire to normalize relations with India, several other factors like the need to mobilize regional resources to deal with an acute balance of payment crisis faced by several South Asian countries; the failure of the North-South dialogues and increasing protectionism by developed countries; and the failure of some South Asian nations like Sri Lanka to join ASEAN as members, contributed to the enthusiasm of smaller South Asian nations for regional cooperation. The Soviet military operations in Afghanistan in December 1979 and the consequent deterioration of regional security environment in South Asia made regional cooperation even more urgent.

Despite the enthusiasm of smaller nations, both India and Pakistan were initially suspicious of the Bangladeshi proposal. India feared that a regional organization will........

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