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What's the article about?
- It talks about replacing SAARC with BIMSTEC to bring regionalism to South Asia.
Relevance:
- GS2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests;
- GS3: Effects of Liberalization on the Economy;
- Prelims
Why is integrated South Asia (regionalism) important?
- South Asia is vital to India's national interests because it is our neighbour.
- South Asia is critical to India's economic development, security, and environmental concerns, among other things.
- This is best captured in the current government’s ‘neighbourhood first’ policy.
- SAARC was a key instrument to brough regionalism in South Asia, but it failed drastically.
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What is Regionalism?
About South Asia:
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What is SAARC?Why did SAARC fail?
- Pakistan has adopted an obstructionist attitude within SAARC
- India, in the last few years, has been looking at SAARC through the lens of Pakistan.
- As a result, the deterioration in India-Pakistan relations has coincided with the disability of SAARC, much to Pakistan's delight.
- Thus, replacing SAARC with BIMSTEC is an urgent necessity.
Why is regionalism preferable to bilateralism?
- A new narrative is that in South Asia, India can successfully use the instrument of bilateralism over regionalism to pursue its interests.
- While bilateralism is undoubtedly important, it can at best complement, not substitute, regional or multilateral efforts.
- Regionalism has brought immense success in other parts such as East Asia and Africa.
- Regionalism can deliver prosperity in the South Asian region too, especially because multilateralism is weakening.
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What is BIMSTEC?
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The BIMSTEC promise:
- Rather than reviving the defunct SAARC, it is preferable to build BIMSTEC into a powerful regional organisation.
- Thus India is moving its diplomatic energy away from SAARC to BIMSTEC.
- BIMSTEC adopted its Charter earlier this year. This Charter is significantly better than the SAARC Charter.
- For instance, unlike the SAARC Charter, Article 6 of the BIMSTEC Charter talks about the ‘Admission of new members’ to the group. This paves the way for the admission of countries such as the Maldives.
- Furthermore this BIMSTEC Charter should integrate the best practices from the world such as ‘ASEAN Minus X’ formula’
- This formula allows two or more ASEAN members to initiate negotiations for economic commitments. Thus, no country enjoys veto power to thwart economic integration between willing countries.
Way Forward:
- BIMSTEC should not end up as another SAARC. For this, its member countries should raise the stakes.
- A high-quality FTA offering deep economic integration would be an ideal step.
- Likewise, India should explore legal ways to move successful SAARC institutions such as SAU to BIMSTEC.
- These steps will give stronger roots to BIMSTEC and enable erecting a new South Asian regional order based on incrementalism and flexibility, ushering in prosperity and peace in the region.
