New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) India on Tuesday sought to hold Pakistan responsible for “stymieing” cooperation under the framework of the SAARC grouping and said New Delhi favours strong regional cooperation.
The remarks by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal came in response to a question on Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu pitching for reviving the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
In an address on Sunday, Muizzu called for resolving differences between the SAARC member nations through dialogue.
“India favours strong regional cooperation and has been working towards it for several decades,” Jaiswal said at his bi-weekly media briefing.
“Everyone in South Asia is aware of which country and what activities are responsible for stymieing SAARC. After all, cooperation does require goodwill,” he added.
The SAARC is a regional bloc comprising India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The grouping has not been very effective since 2016 as its biennial summits have not taken place since the last one in Kathmandu in 2014.
The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances”.
The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet.
In the last few years, India has made concerted efforts to make BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) a vibrant forum for regional cooperation as initiatives under SAARC were not moving forward. PTI MPB KVK KVK KVK
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