The corona epidemic has been fought separately by the SAARC and ASEAN, a group of South Asian countries. There is a huge difference in regional groups in mutual cooperation in fighting the global epidemic. It has highlighted the problems of cooperation.
In the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi called an virtual diplomatic meeting of the SAARC heads of state, taking an unprecedented diplomatic step. Modi proposed the SAARC Emergency Fund to fight Covid-19 and offered to contribute one million dollars in it. With the cooperation of other countries, this amount reached 2.18 million dollars. In this meeting held on 15 March, apart from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, the heads of state or government of all member countries participated. Imran Khan was represented by his distinguished health assistant doctor Zafar Mirza. This meeting once again showed that the dispute between India and Pakistan thwarted every initiative. The same happened during the launch of the SAARC satellite. This round of talks revealed the possibilities and possibilities of cooperation in South Asia through SAARC.
It will be said to be the misfortune of South Asia that every step taken towards regional cooperation weighs in the scales of India-Pakistan first and then it is discussed somewhere else. As if the remaining six members, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Maldives, do not exist. Will South Asian regional cooperation always be sacrificed to India-Pakistan tension? Is there no tension between the member states in all the other regional organizations of the world? it's not like that at all.
Example of cooperation in Southeast Asia
Look at the neighborhood area of Southeast Asia only. Like India and its neighboring countries, 10 member countries of ASEAN are counted among developing countries. The past of these countries drowning between democracy and dictatorship is not very good with South Asian countries. For example, when Malaya was partitioned and Singapore and Malaysia became two independent nations, Indonesia strongly opposed it and opposed it at all levels under the policy of “Confrontation“. When India supported Malaysia in this dispute, Indonesia went down in support of Pakistan and in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, it supported Pakistan. All the issues like Vietnam War, Vietnam-Cambodia War, Malaysia-Border Dispute between Philippines kept ASEAN's difficulties for decades.
Not only this, there is a dispute between Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines on the issue of South China Sea and they all claim it. Even if it is assumed for a while that China will not dispute in the South China Sea, it is not easy to resolve the dispute between these ASEAN countries. Apart from this, there have been many more disputes between these countries including Sabah, Pedra-Branca, Preah Vihar and Rohingya refugees who have fled from Myanmar. But this does not mean that these countries have blocked the road of regional development and economic progress due to their grassroots and other disputes. While there has not been a regional free trade agreement in South Asia till date, ASEAN had not only signed such an agreement two decades ago in 1992, but today through the draft Regional Economic Partnership (RCEP), it has reached China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India are moving towards a mega trade agreement.
Cooperation during corona
During the Covid epidemic, there have been extensive steps of cooperation at the regional level in ASEAN countries. ASEAN countries have maintained mutual support despite their limited resources and uncertainties arising from the epidemic. Malaysia, for example, kept its ports open for Singapore and did not break this contact despite hindering the movement of people. Singapore is almost entirely dependent on imports in the supply of agriculture, poultry, livestock and allied products. In the last few weeks, ASEAN has taken all steps of cooperation. The 26th annual session of the Finance Ministers took place on 10 March, in which a strategy of economic cooperation in fighting Covid was formulated and the commitment to keep the markets open for mutual trade was also reiterated. A special ASEAN summit was also organized on 14 April in which all the dimensions of cooperation were discussed. In addition to agreeing on the ASEAN Response Fund, Singapore introduced a draft cross-border movement in the area after Covid during the convention, while Malaysia initiated an economic recovery plan to fight Covid-19. Apart from this, in the meetings of Tourism and Health Ministers, there has been intense discussion on the ways of mutual cooperation.
The Covid epidemic has shown a mirror to America, Britain, France and all the major countries of the world. They have realized that the power of the world is not self-sufficient and cannot be. Today all the countries of the world are sitting in the hope that together they might become a vaccine or how to run the regional supply chain uninterruptedly. Regional organizations such as ASEAN are engaged in this and want cooperation from China, Japan, USA and India too. All the countries of South Asia and SAARC also have to understand its importance and also that the responsibility is not only of India or any one country, but of all.
The idea of SAARC cooperation for regional cooperation is undoubtedly good, but now the time has come to take further steps on it. It is not necessary that all eight countries go together on every issue. There can be two-speed cooperation along the lines of the European Union. According to the desire and ability, member countries can be added to it. It is true that Pakistan has greatly challenged India's regional cooperation goals, but it is also true that it has become more urgent than ever for India and Pakistan to focus on regional cooperation by rising above their mutual quarrels. India and other countries of SAARC will have to draw a big streak of regional agenda and that streak will be to get a new level of economic development and growth through regional cooperation.
(Rahul Mishra is Senior Lecturer of International Politics at the Asia-Europe Institute, Universiti Malaya )
Article was first published on DW.com Hindi version
Last Update: 11/11/2021