It’s time for SAARC nations to start pushing common concerns impacting their citizens

The last month of the year is always a tricky time for world affairs, more so for India,which chooses to keep normal work schedule in terms of Parliament in session and government officials sending out new policy notifications while the Western world is more on a holiday mode. Now there is an additional risk of the world suddenly coming to a screeching halt with the rise of new COVID variant Omicron. One of the first casualties has been the WTO ministerial conference which was supposed to be held till December 3, but has now has been postponed. India had a bunch of issues to push during the ministerial, one of which is pushing for patents waiver on vaccines which wouldmake them cheaper and increase their availability for poorer nations. What experts today agree about the new variant is the need for global vaccination. After all, the African nations from where the first cases of the new variant were detected, are also ones with the lowest vaccination rates. This means India will have to keep working on its bilaterals, and mini multilaterals while keeping an eye for a WTO kind of a multilateral platform. India should watch out for its geopolitical reference and influence in Southeast Asia, where it is the largest country. The SAARC is more or less a defunct organization primarily due to the constant tug of war between India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, India’s long-term allies like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal are being increasingly wooed by China. The economic might of China together with its entrapping Belt and Road initiative is too alluring a bait to be missed by a nation looking to quickly improve wealth for its citizens. The recent examples have been Pakistan and Sri Lanka both of whom had to accept money from China due the worsening domestic economic situation.

That leaves us with what SAARC can do in the emerging situation and how it can be a catalyst for increasing India’s influence in the region. It would be worthwhile to remember that one of the core pillars of regional cooperation amongst SAARC nations, as agreed upon in Dhaka convention in 1983, is in the area of healthcare and pandemic mitigation. News reports emerging from SAARC countries since 2020 are examples of how leaders across the region paid little or no attention towards healthcare. India is one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world, yet its immediate neighborhood has got first tranches of vaccines from China. One of the key reasons for this failure of cooperation on vaccines among SAARC members is the speed with which the deadlier second wave hit India and its neighborhood, leaving little room for sharing healthcare facilities, and expertise amongst allies. The second reason being this part of world is one of the most densely populated with huge proximity between humans, making all efforts towards isolation of virus virtually impossible. However, the time has come for India to steer towards closer relations with and between SAARC members, as they emerge from one of the worst periods in human history. Earlier in the year, a SAARC membership meeting was scheduled to be held in New York in September. However, differences over the placement of chair toppled the cart. Pakistan wanted the Taliban as a representative of Afghanistan to participate in the meeting, but later agreed to place a symbolic chair due to restrictions on Taliban leaders to travel to the US. Except for Pakistan, no other SAARC member seeks recognition of the new Taliban dispensation. It is time for SAARC nations to start pushing common concerns impacting their citizens.

(The writer is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.)