Sino-SAARC Relations
UNDOUBTEDLY, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could greatly
benefit from its proximity with China especially in terms of the strengthening of their
economic relations. But watchers of SAARC and China have not seen this realisation
fructifying into any meaningful Sino-SAARC relationship. Speakers at a seminar on SAARC
and China, organised by China Study Centre, were right in pointing out at the common
denominators between SAARC nations and China. South Asia and China share a long
geographical border and, as they put it, commonalities in civilisational continuity in
art, history, music or literature. China and the seven-nation combine each have about 1.3
billion people. On the other hand, when it comes to economic growth, the disparity is
distinct. South Asia has only a five per cent cumulative growth rate while China has
enjoyed 3 to 10 per cent growth pace in the last decade. China's march on the economic
growth road has been marked by big jumps, enabling it to be a major player in
international economic and financial equation. The hopes that the great leaps forward that
China has made in its economy would somehow also have some positive spillover effects on
South Asia have however been belied. Foreign affairs experts, intellectuals, academicians
and politicians of South Asia, participating in the seminar, laid the blame for a weak
SAARC-China economic relations squarely on the SAARC itself, for the slow-paced
cooperation even among the member states of the grouping. Indeed, it would be unrealistic
to expect the SAARC member nations gaining from China's rapid economic growth without
first turning SAARC into a regional combine that internally functions smoothly first and
then seriously tries to reach out to boost relations with other countries and similar such
regional groupings. A Chinese professor hit it on the nail when he told the gathering that
when bilateral relations among the SAARC member states remained tense, some SAARC members
would be suspicious of close ties with China. Then there is the slow growth rate of trade
among the SAARC member states themselves. But potentials for strengthening SAARC-China
relationship are clearly there. The first hitch to tackle here is the lack of good
transportation links between China and SAARC nations, without which not much can move
ahead. In this connection, the proposed Asian Highway and the Trans-Asian Railway, if they
come off the ground, could be a significant step towards boosting China-SAARC
relationship. In the days ahead, SAARC must collectively enter into a productive dialogue
with China on how the two, boasting of the two-fifths of humanity, could build up mutually
beneficial ties and turn the current Sino-SAARC situation into a vibrant relationship.
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