Lawmakers from across political parties on Monday voiced concerns over the stalled SAARC process and urged the government to take diplomatic initiative to revive it. The SAARC summit has not been held since 2014.

Following a terrorist attack on an Indian military base in 2016, India was the first country to pull out from the scheduled 19th SAARC Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan. Later, other SAARC countries followed the Indian decision, throwing the entire SAARC process in jeopardy.

Cross-party lawmakers expressed their concerns during the regular House session on Monday after Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha tabled the Bimstec Charter approved by the Bimstec Summit in Colombo in 2022.

Shrestha said Bimstec cannot replace SAARC, another regional organisation. While tabling the Bimstec Charter adopted in March 2022 at the House of Representatives, he said both regional organisations have their own importance. Nepal is a member of both SAARC and Bimstec and it has been chairing SAARC since 2014, thus becoming the longest-serving chair of the regional grouping.

Due to the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan, SAARC has not been able to convene its summit.

“Nepal is clear… Bimstec cannot replace SAARC, which is still important. The government is working to reinvigorate SAARC and actively working to convene the SAARC summit,” said Shrestha.

With the SAARC summit not happening and its meetings being irregular, the standing of Nepal as SAARC chair will also be questioned, Raghuji Pant, a CPN-UML lawmaker said. “As Pakistan is not in Bimstec, it could be India’s desire to move forward with Bimstec by shadowing SAARC. If we push Bimstec, we should also push SAARC,” he added.

Another UML lawmaker Yogesh Bhattarai said Bimestc is instrumental for tourism development and promotion as well as for building transport networks and connectivity.

“The stalled SAARC summit should be held on time and together we should also push for Bimstec. A fast changing geopolitical shift is taking place in South Asia and we should be careful about the emerging geopolitical competition. The way Bimstec is emerging to negate SAARC, we have to be cautious. Bimstec should not replace SAARC,” said Bhattarai.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Pradip Poudel said Bimstec cannot be an alternative to SAARC. SAARC is important in and of itself, he added. Sanjay Gautam, also of the Congress, stated that Nepal should take a lead to reinvigorate the stalled SAARC process and as the chair of SAARC, Nepal should not let SAARC be a passive organisation.

Ideas were also floated on Nepal’s role in Bimstec. “It is up to Nepal about how much it can achieve from Bimstec,” Sishir Khanal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party said. “There is no meaning of only participating in such regional forums. How can we increase the mobility of tourists, how can we cooperate in the energy sector and what are the other possibilities? If we can identify the areas of cooperation under the framework of Bimstec, it would benefit the country.”

Another Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Manish Jha said Nepal should learn from other Bimstec member states.

“What can we learn from Bimstec member states? From India, the fifth largest economy of the world, what can we learn? What can we learn from the stability and exclusivity of Bhutan? What can we learn from Sri Lanka that has just overcome an economic crisis? What can we learn from Thailand’s tourism development?” said Jha.

We should chart out our strategic vision to benefit from Bimsetc, said Jha. “Nepal should identify and fix its strategic goals on how to cooperate under the framework of Bimstec.”

Deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs Shrestha said Nepal is working to benefit from Bimstec. Each of its seven members is preparing an action plan on how to take maximum benefit from Bimestc, he said while addressing the House.

On SAARC also, there have been some positive developments and Nepal is continuously pushing for the summit that has been stalled since 2014, he said.