South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

In the ending years of 1970s, the seven inner South Asian nations that included Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, andSri Lanka agreed upon the creation of a trade bloc and to provide a platform for the peoples of South Asia to work together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding. Efforts towards establishing the union was first mooted by the President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman on 2 May 1980 whilst talking to the media journalist in Dhaka. President Zia Rehman addressed official letters to the leaders of the countries of the South Asia, presenting his vision for the future of the region and the compelling arguments for region. During his visit to India in December 1977, President Zia Rehman discussed the issue of regional cooperation with the Indian Prime Minister, Morarji Desai. In the inaugural speech to the Colombo Plan Consultative Committee which met in Kathmandu also in 1977, King Birendra of Nepal gave a call for close regional cooperation among South Asian countries in sharing river waters.

 After the USSR's intervention in Afghanistan, the efforts to established the union was accelerated in 1979 and the resulting rapid deterioration of South Asian security situation. Responding to the President Zia Rehman and King Birendra's convention, the officials of the foreign ministries of the seven countries met for the first time in Colombo in April 1981. The Bangladesh's proposal was promptly endorsed by Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives but India and Pakistan were skeptical initially. The Indian concern was the proposal’s reference to the security matters in South Asia and feared that President Zia Rehman's proposal for a regional organization might provide an opportunity for new smaller neighbors to renationalized all bilateral issues and to join with each other to gang up against India. Pakistan assumed that it might be an Indian strategy to organize the other South Asian countries against Pakistan and ensure a regional market for Indian products, thereby consolidating and further strengthening India’s economic dominance in the region.

However, after a series of quiet diplomatic consultations between South Asian foreign ministers at the UN headquarters in New York from August to September 1980, it was agreed that Bangladesh would prepare the draft of a working paper for discussion among the foreign secretaries of South Asian countries.The foreign secretaries of inner seven countries again delegated aCommittee of the Whole in Colombo on September 1981, which identified five broad areas for regional cooperation. New areas of co-operation were added in the following years.

In 1983, the International conference held by Indian Minister of External Affairs PVN Rao in New Delhi, the foreign ministers of the inner seven countries adopted the Declaration on South Asian Association Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and formally launched the Integrated Programme of Action (IPA) initially in five agreed areas of cooperation namely, Agriculture; Rural Development; Telecommunications; Meteorology; and Health and Population Activities.