Introduction

Being inspired primarily by the success of the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Bangladesh's late president General Ziaur Rahman took the initiative of establishing an ‘ASEAN-like’ regional organization in South Asia in the late 1970s. The Bangladeshi leader formally wrote to his South Asian counterparts on the issue in May 1980 and dispatched a working paper on regional cooperation in November of that year. The Bangladesh government's vigorous informal and semi-formal diplomacy paved the way for the holding of the first meeting of the foreign secretaries of the seven South Asian states in 1981 in Colombo to discuss the Bangladeshi proposal. They agreed to work together on this and hold further meetings in the future. The foreign secretaries held four more exploratory meetings before the discussion moved to the political level and the foreign ministers of the seven South Asian states held their first meeting in August 1983 in New Delhi in which they adopted the declaration of ‘South Asian Regional Cooperation’ (SARC). The foreign ministers also adopted the ‘Integrated Programme of Action’ (IPA) at this meeting with a set of areas agreed upon for cooperation. After several rounds of foreign ministers’ meetings, the first ever summit of South Asian states took place in December 1985 in Dhaka in which they adopted the Charter of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), thus formally launching the organization.

There was enthusiasm all around about the potential of SAARC when it was launched. As one of the poorest regions of the world and with low per capita income and standard of living, it was thought that the organization would elevate millions out of poverty and push towards better living standards. Also, it was expected that economic integration and interdependence would contribute to the rise of a peaceful regional environment leaving behind its traditional conflictual past. To lead the region towards that path, the SAARC leaders adopted, following the early pathway of European regionalism, the neo-functional approach for regional cooperation.