The issue of terrorism significantly became the main focal point along with issues related to growth and development during the recently concluded Fifteenth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) held in Colombo. The Summit, taking place soon after the tragic terrorist attack on the Indian embassy at Kabul and the subsequent serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad in India, was bound to witness a debate on rise of terrorism in South Asia.

What was, however, more significant and a positive development was that India's concern was shared more or less equally by the heads of state of her South Asian neighbours. For anyone familiar with the history of mutual discords affecting the SAARC leading to its poor functioning, the general consensus on the issue of terrorism as a 'regional scourge,' has indeed been a positive development which has come as a welcome surprise.

The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakshe, in his inaugural speech, for instance, called on the South Asian leaders attending the summit to commit themselves and their countries to a more determined and concerted effort to collectively combat the scourge of terrorism in all its forms and manifestation and reiterated the necessity to strengthen regional legal mechanisms and intensify intelligence sharing to secure the region 's collective prosperity, peace and stability, in combating terrorism.

The Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh singled out terrorism as the single biggest threat to the regional stability and progress. He also mentioned that the recent attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and the serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad were gruesome reminders of the barbarity that still finds a place here in South Asia and insisted upon acting jointly and with determination to fight this scourge.

Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, in a hard hitting speech aimed at the Pakistani establishment said that terrorism in the region was, "the result of institutional support and narrow minded politics" and, "In Pakistan, terrorism and its sanctuaries are gaining a deeper grip as demonstrated by the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto."

Already on the back foot, after the recent publication of a New York Times Report claiming the ISI involvement in the recent terrorist attack on the Indian embassy at Kabul, the Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, condemned the attack on the Indian mission in Kabul and argued that his country has also been a victim of terrorism and had lost its former Prime Minister (Benazir Bhutto) to terrorism. Reiterating that his country also had suffered enormously due to the scourge of terrorism, he asserted the willingness of Pakistan to fight terrorism, individually and collectively.

The SAARC in fact, already has an existing SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism since 1987. The SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk (STOMD) was also set up in Colombo in 1990. None of these, however, have been very effective in tackling the regional growth of terrorism. In a recently published article in the Hindustan Times on 28th July 2008, Mahendra P. Lama writes that, "Ironically, after almost 20 years of the signing of the Convention, the New Delhi Summit of 2007, for the first time, talked about 'working on the modalities to implement the provisions' of this convention.

This demonstrates how SAARC summits have become a meaningless regional ritual." The recently concluded Fifteenth Summit also witnessed the finalization of another SAARC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters after hard negotiations. This convention plans to provide a legal framework for greater cooperation amongst security forces of member countries to track, arrest and handover of criminals and terrorists on request from any member country.

The reality seems to be that the organization of SAARC, having completed twenty-three years of existence, like a young adult, is suffering from an identity crisis. Since its formal establishment as a regional organization in 1985, the SAARC has been trying to fulfil its role as a regional Confidence Building Measure (CBM) exercise, as well as a facilitator of regional economic cooperation and has failed to fulfil either objective in a satisfactory manner. Global changes as well as commensurate regional shifts in recent times during the post Cold War period have, however, affected the functioning of the SAARC also which had, till recently been given up as a moribund organization.

A new trend to revitalise the organization as a viable economic group mainly focuses on a 'Look East' policy with attempts to forge closer linkages between South Asia and the Southeast Asian regions. Proliferation of economic ties also on an inter-regional basis has become a necessity in the age of geo-economics. Recent attempts made by India and some other South Asian countries to forge closer ties with the 'growth areas' of South-East Asia, Southwest China and the Indian Ocean rim countries must be understood in the context of such global movements. India's relations with the ASEAN countries, in fact, have substantially improved since the early 1990s though the commercial ties are yet to reach the desired level.

Such efforts till now, however, have involved bilateral ventures, lacking regional coordination. The formation of two new associations, the Indian Ocean Rim- Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) and the Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand- Economic Cooperation (BIMST-EC) formed in 1997, (regrouped as the 'Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation' with the inclusion of new members like Nepal and Bhutan since 2004), also holds tremendous potential for the SAARC regional grouping in enhancing regional cooperation especially in prioritized areas like trade and investment, technology, transportation and communication, energy, tourism and fisheries. Attempts are also on to increase economic interaction between the Indian Northeastern region and the Southwestern region in China.

This should not, however, lead to the neglect of the South Asian region itself and the strategic and security issues it is confronted with. It may be suggested that the organization should continue with its task of greater engagement in the region, as that had been one of its original objective along with its attempts to emerge as a key facilitator in forging intra-Asian economic networks. The failure to arrest violence and ensure regional stability is bound to adversely affect the SAARC prospects to emerge as a viable regional economic organization also.

In this context, the SAARC members would do well to quickly develop an elaborate cooperative regional structure to deal with terrorism. In this process it could also involve the member-states which have been accorded observer status. Currently these include: Japan, the United States, the European Union, China, South Korea, Iran and Mauritius. Tackling terrorism, in this connection, must be given top priority and any serious regional effort to deal with it would be welcome. It is particularly important for the Indian policymakers in the South Block not to forget about the SAARC until the next Summit and to seize the initiative in taking the lead in creating a comprehensive and effective regional agenda on terrorism.


Dr. Shantanu Chakrabarti teaches at University of Calcutta. He can be contacted at chakrabartishantanu@hotmail.com.