The fifteenth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit held recently in Colombo run out of whatever little steam it had. The whole exercise was concentrated on Indo-Pak relations and devising mechanism to fight terrorism in the region. It will be unrealistic now to count on it for promoting concrete action programmes or for collective efforts in core areas such as trade and economy, people-to-people contacts, transport and communication. Mutual suspicions and distrust among most member countries, especially the adversarial relations between India and Pakistan, are responsible for its troubles.

There was considerable potential for joint actions in diverse fields, with the initial enthusiasm giving rise to hopes for steady progress if not for spectacular results. In practice, however, it remained confined lo tokenism. The disap-pointment thus generated led to the emergence of lobbies in some member countries, virtually advocating the abandonment of the grouping. The SAARC may not have had any achievement to its credit in the areas of its operation but, surprisingly, it produced results in the items not covered by its charter. The various summits provided occasions for holding informal discussions on intractable bilateral problems. The declarations at the summits pointedly hailed and commended these contact on the sidelines of the formal meetings.

The Colombo meeting evoked tremendous interest because it was the first encounter, between a Pakistani Prime Minister and his counterpart from the BJP. It was also the first such contact after the nuclear tests by the two countries. No immediate results flowed but that was the beginning of a process that culminated in the Lahore bus journey. That Lahore was scuttled by Kargil is another matter. Progress was slow from the start at the SAARC but it became jinxed from the end of 1999, from the time of the military coup in Pakistan.

For years, Pakistan had been wanting the SAARC to take up its problems with India, especially the Kashmir issue, saying the India Pakistan crisis came in the way of regional cooperation. Pakistan and the other supporting its demand were charged with working against the charter. Has New Delhi not exposed itself to this very charge? Had India not made use of its bilateral problem with Pakistan for delaying the summit and, thus, causing damage to the grouping?

The possible collapse of the SAARC in its present form, though highly regrettable and disappointing, could be a challenge for devising a new effective mechanism in its place. The sentiment in favour of regional cooperation is strong, though not evenly spread in the region. No responsible person in the region, in the government or outside, intellectuals or others, could dare make a case against regional cooperation. At the non-official level, commendable efforts have been made lo conduct studies to achieve this objective Like, for instance, the Sout Asia Centre for Policy Studie (SACEPS), a network of organsations involved in addressing issues of regional concern.

This vision is at complete variance with the present day reality. Meanwhile something needs, to be done about the present-day-reality. Terrorism, apart from other things, vitiates the atmosphere, creating a climate of suspicion and distrust. Let this situation not be compounded by stopping rail, road and air travel (between India and Pakistan) and creating problems in the way of people-to-people contacts and track II initiatives.