Failed Regional Mechanisms

Nepal in BIMSTEC and SAARC by Indra Adhikari (Editor). Publisher: Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA), Kathmandu. ISBN: 978-9937-9274-0-6. July 2018. Pages 168. Price Rs. 350.

South Asia is the region with the largest population which makes it the biggest prospective market in the world. It is the young region with the largest share of youth globally. But, this is the region with the poorest people, terrorism, epidemic as well as natural disasters like draught, floods, earthquake, glacial lake outburst and many more.

Similarly, it is the least integrated region in the world with just 5-6 per cent intra-regional business. And the largest country in South Asia, India, has troubled relation with Pakistan and border disputes with almost every nation around it. Most of the regional agenda are overshadowed by the disputes between India and Pakistan.

This characteristic has clearly reflected in the only regional mechanism in the region, the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). The SAARC Summit is in limbo due to soured Indo-Pak relations and the regional body is almost in coma with zero activities in the last couple of years.

To ring out Pakistan, India has been promoting another regional mechanism called the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) that includes all the member nations of the SAARC except Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Maldives. 

There is another effort as well – when Pakistan expressed its reservations and denied signing the SAARC Motor Vehicle Agreement, Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) sub-regional network is also being promoted with an aim to promote free vehicular movement among the four neighbours.

Meanwhile, India’s interest in the south-east Asia was growing – it had adopted ‘Look East’ policy in 1993 - while Thailand had adopted ‘Look West’ policy. 

Both the growing economies needed additional market, thus the so far neglected BIMSTEC suddenly got the limelight. Many foreign policy experts say that the Myanmar factor is the most vital factor in Sino-Indian geo-politics as it is where India meets China and BIMSTEC is a sub-regional innovation to gain leverage over Myanmar.

However, for Nepal, BIMSTEC was supposed to provide an entry into the south-east Asia through several connectivity projects and linkages in transport, trade, investment, energy and tourism. Diplomat Madhu Raman Acharya, in the book ‘Nepal in BIMSTEC and SAARC’ published by the Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA) says, in 2004, Nepal joined the grouping because it did not want to miss the train. Unfortunately, the train did not move. 

He has termed the organisation as ‘multi-sectoral’ in principle and ‘non-starter’ in terms of achievement. Former Finance Minister Madhukar SJB Rana writes that the BIMSTEC is clearly under-performing and, relatively, it is in poorer shape than progress in SAARC or BBIN.

Similarly, though it dreamt of becoming a South Asian Economic Union, SAARC has miserably failed to remove trade barriers and promote intra-regional trade. Economist Prof. Bishwambher Pyakuryal observes that about 53 per cent of the total intra-regional import trade was excluded from the tariff liberalization programme. 

SAARC has been characterized by mistrust and misunderstanding between the member states. SAARC was established in 1985 and BIMSTEC in 1998 but till now there are just four BIMSTEC summits and 18 SAARC summits.

Though the book is a collection of papers and comments presented in the conferences organised by the IFA, it gives deep insights into the regional mechanisms, their weaknesses and recommendations to revitalise them. The experts have also offered their suggestions for Nepal’s role.

The book includes papers on BIMSTEC by Rana and Acharya and papers on SAARC by Pyakuryal and Acharya, remarks from Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi, Economist Prof. Madan Kumar Dahal and keynote address by the former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. 

Although some of the information in the book is repeated, it is worth reading.

@ModDhakal

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 2 November 2018.