Islamabad, June 30 - Pakistan and China are working on a proposal to set up a new regional body that could replace the now-defunct South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The Express Tribune newspaper reported, citing diplomatic sources familiar with the development, that talks between Islamabad and Beijing are now at the next stage as both sides agree that a new body is necessary for regional integration and connectivity.
The newspaper, citing sources, said that the new body could potentially replace the regional bloc SAARC, which includes India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
He said the recent trilateral meeting between Pakistan, China and Bangladesh in Kunming, China, was part of a diplomatic maneuver and was aimed at inviting other South Asian countries, which were part of SAARC, to join the new grouping.
However, Bangladesh’s interim government, saying the meeting was not political, dismissed the idea of ??any emerging alliance between Dhaka, Beijing and Islamabad. “We are not forming any alliance,” Foreign Affairs Advisor M Towhid Hossain had said.
According to sources, India will be invited to the newly proposed forum, while countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan are expected to be part of the grouping. The newspaper said the main objective of the new body is to seek greater regional integration through increased trade and connectivity.
If the proposal goes ahead, it will replace SAARC, which has been on hold for a long time due to the India-Pakistan conflict. The last SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014. The 2016 SAARC summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian army camp in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to attend the summit due to circumstances. The summit was cancelled after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also refused to attend the Islamabad meeting