Pakistan wants bigger Saarc with China

Pakistan is exploring the possibility of creating a greater South Asian economic alliance to include China, Iran and neighbouring Central Asian republics as part of its bid counter India’s influence in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a media report said on Wedensday.

Dawn News, citing diplomatic observers, said Pakistan is exploring the possibility of creating a greater South Asian economic alliance to counter India’s “controlling hold” on the eight-member Saarc.

A parliamentary delegation from Pakistan, which is now in New York, pitched this idea during its five-day visit to Washington last week, the report said.

“A greater South Asia is already emerging,” Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed was quoted as saying in one of his interactions with the media.

“This greater South Asia includes China, Iran and the neighbouring Central Asian republics,” he said.

He described the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as the key economic route linking South Asia with Central Asia.

The Gwadar port, Mr Syed said, would be the nearest warm water port, not only for China, but also for the land-locked Central Asian states.

“We want India to join this arrangement as well,” said Mr Syed.

Indians are “unlikely to accept” the offer as they are comfortable with the advantage that Saarc provides them, the report said.

“India used its influence in Saarc to isolate Pakistan when it announced that it would not attend the regional group’s 19th summit, scheduled in Islamabad,” the report said.

Citing continuous cross-border terrorism by Pakistan, India had announced in September that “in the prevailing circumstances, the Indian government is unable to participate in the proposed Summit in Islamabad”.

Besides India, four other Saarc members — Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan — had also pulled out of the summit.

“Among the eight Saarc nations, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are India’s strong allies while Bhutan, surrounded by India from all sides, is too small to resist any move from New Delhi. The Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka have good ties with Pakistan, but they are not large enough to take on India,” the report said.