SAARC COVID-19 Fund: Calibrating a Regional Response to the Pandemic

摘要

The main challenge for SAARC has been the lack of effective leadership ever since its creation. Since 2004, India has proactively defined its role in SAARC as 'asymmetric responsibility'. This is very much evident from some of the unilateral contributions that India has made so far within SAARC. It is one of the largest contributors to the South Asia Development Fund and it had also proposed the launching of South Asia Satellite to serve the needs of the SAARC member countries, as part of the neighbourhood first policy, during the 18th SAARC Summit held in Nepal in 2014 (the satellite, GSAT-9, was formally launched on May 5, 2017). In January 2019, the Indian cabinet approved the 'Framework on Currency Swap Arrangement for SAARC Member Countries', to incorporate a 'Standby Swap' amounting to US$ 400 million. This initiative was instituted in 2012 to help the SAARC member countries to overcome the balance of payment crisis depending on their reserve for their two-month import requirement, which should not exceed US$ 2 billion.47 It is a pity that India's role has not elicited positive reactions from Pakistan, which has continued to challenge India's regional leadership within SAARC. Apart from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal were reluctant to allow India to take a lead in the past and made efforts to bring in China as a SAARC member, despite India's strong reservations. It is well known that many countries in the region have used, and continue to use, China as a regional balancer especially to offset India's regional primacy.