India’s opposition to China’s role, boycott of SAARC summit led to regional bloc’s decline
Islamabad,: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has remained paralysed largely due to India’s opposition to an expanded role for China in the regional bloc and its subsequent boycott of the 2016 SAARC summit in Pakistan.
According to Kashmir Media Servic, a post shared by Indian analyst Pravin Sawhney said, Nepal, Maldives and Pakistan had supported upgrading China’s observer status to full membership at the 2014 SAARC summit in Nepal, but India opposed the move.
The post further noted that India used the 2016 Uri attack as a pretext to withdraw from the SAARC summit hosted by Pakistan, leading other countries to follow suit and effectively stalling the regional organisation.
India subsequently shifted its focus towards BIMSTEC and promoted initiatives such as the Act East policy, moving away from the broader South Asian regional framework.
India’s refusal to accommodate other regional powers and its decision to boycott the 2016 summit played a key role in undermining SAARC, reflecting New Delhi’s unwillingness to allow a genuinely inclusive regional cooperation mechanism to function.
