Dhaka (TDI): Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has renewed calls for the revival of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) following meetings with senior officials from Pakistan, India, and other South Asian countries during former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s state funeral in Dhaka.
SAARC has remained largely inactive since 2016, when a planned summit in Islamabad was indefinitely postponed after India withdrew in the wake of a militant attack it blamed on Pakistan, allegations Islamabad strongly denied.
India’s decision was later followed by Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, effectively freezing the regional bloc. Yunus met Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday.
The encounter, which included a brief exchange of greetings, was the first high-level interaction between officials from the two countries since their military confrontation in May last year.
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“During the meetings, Professor Yunus repeatedly emphasized the need to revive the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation,” according to a statement shared on his official X account.
Highlighting the symbolic significance of the occasion, Yunus said the funeral reflected the spirit of regional cooperation. “We witnessed a true SAARC spirit at the funeral yesterday. SAARC is still alive. The SAARC spirit is still alive,” he was quoted as saying.
The event brought together several South Asian leaders and representatives, including Nepal’s Foreign Minister Bala Nanda Sharma, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Employment and Tourism Vijitha Herath, and Maldives’ Minister of Higher Education and Labor Ali Haider Ahmed.
Yunus also revealed that he had previously attempted to convene an informal gathering of SAARC leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last year, underscoring his continued efforts to re-energize the dormant regional forum.
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His remarks come weeks after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif similarly called for the revival of SAARC as the bloc marked the 40th anniversary of its founding charter.
Sharif stressed the need for stronger economic cooperation and collective regional responses to shared challenges, including poverty, climate change, food and energy insecurity, and public health risks.
Despite longstanding political tensions, Yunus’ renewed push suggests a growing recognition among regional leaders that dialogue and cooperation remain essential for South Asia’s stability and development.
Minahil Khurshid holds a master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from CIPS, NUST. She has a strong interest in current affairs, geopolitics, and policy analysis.
