South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

Why in news?

• External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi are expected to meet via a videoconference at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting on September 24.

About SAARC:

• The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia.
• Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• Apart from the eight members, States with observer status include Australia, China, the European Union, Iran, Japan,  Mauritius,  Myanmar, South Korea, and the United States.
• The SAARC comprises 3% of the world's area, 21% of the world's population and 4.21% (US$3.67 trillion) of the global economy, as of 2019.
• Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Foundation and Structure:

• The SAARC was founded in Dhaka on 8 December 1985.  
• The first SAARC summit was held in Dhaka on 7–8 December 1985 and hosted by the President of Bangladesh Hussain Ershad.

SAFTA:

• Agreement for “South Asian Free Trade Area” (SAFTA) was signed in 2004 and entered into force in 2006.
• But the intra-SAARC trade amounts to just a little over 1% of SAARC's GDP.

2019 SAARC summit:

• The 19th SAARC summit scheduled to be held in Pakistan in 2016 was called off as India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan decided to boycott it.
• It was for the first time that four countries boycotted a SAARC summit, leading to its cancellation.
• Since then SAARC has been largely inactive and a summit which will be conducted in 2020 is expected to revive the organisation.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following statements regarding “SAARC”:
1.It was founded in 1995 in Dhaka.
2.Secretariat of SAARC is located in Delhi, India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to prelims question