On August 28, while answering queries from lawmakers at a meeting of the International Relations and Tourism Committee of the House of Representatives, Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud stated that the stalled SAARC process would be revived after an informal meeting of the region’s foreign ministers in New York.

Nepal, the current chair of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, had called an informal meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers for September 20 in New York in its attempt to revive the stalled SAARC process.

Saud has already reached New York and is taking part in various meetings on the margins of the 78th UN general assembly.

Now, according to the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York and Kathmandu-based SAARC Secretariat officials, the likelihood of the informal meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers is slim.

“Since we could not receive concurrence from all member states, the meeting is not going to happen this time as well,” a senior foreign ministry official said. “The SAARC Secretariat is going to inform all member states soon about the meeting’s cancellation.”

The meeting, considered a “tone-setter” to high-level meetings including the summit, could not take place in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Not having such meetings for four straight years means the SAARC process is unlikely to resume anytime soon.

In 2019, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan boycotted each other’s address to a meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers organised on the margins of the 74th UN general assembly.

In 2020, the meeting was held virtually, where the member states pledged to enhance regional integration, but it could not end the logjam in the SAARC process. And in 2021, the meeting was called off at the last minute after some member states declined to attend it. Then prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, had hurriedly appointed Narayan Khadka foreign minister in view of the New York meeting.

Last year, the meeting could not take place after Khadka did not travel to New York owing to the general elections at home.

Officials would not reveal which country declined to attend the meeting this time.

The meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers is very unlikely to take place this year, a director at the SAARC Secretariat told the Post, requesting anonymity.

“Nepal, as the SAARC chair, is still trying to convene the meeting and will explore what can be done,” the director said.

“Probably the External Affairs Minister of India, S Jaishankar, is travelling to New York only after September 20, or there might be other reasons. Some member states might have expressed their inability to attend,” a Nepali diplomat told the Post over the phone from New York.

Nepal hosted the last SAARC summit in Kathmandu in 2014, and it was Pakistan’s turn to host the 19th Summit, but the event was cancelled after an attack on an Indian military camp in Kashmir. This led to a standoff between India and Pakistan, and the summit was put off until further notice. Since 2014, Nepal has been assuming the chair of the regional group.

“As SAARC chair, Nepal has its obligations,” Foreign Minister Saud said in Kathmandu on Wednesday before heading for New York. “We are going to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, where we have called an informal meeting of the SAARC foreign ministers that will give the organisation a new lease of life.”

There have been occasional technical meetings at different levels led by bureaucrats, but they are insufficient to revitalise the regional grouping. “Committee-level small meetings have been taking place regularly,” a senior foreign ministry official said. “Since it is not happening this time too, the SAARC process falls into protracted limbo, and we do not know when we can generate that momentum.”

Saud said Nepal hopes that the meeting to be held in New York will add dynamism to the organisation. “SAARC member states have agreed to appoint a new general secretary, who is expected to take up his new assignment soon.”