After failing to hold the annual informal meetings of SAARC foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly for four consecutive years, Nepal has scheduled a similar Regional Council of Ministers meeting for September 26 in New York.

Nepal has been chairing the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation since 2014, becoming the longest-serving chair in the regional grouping’s history.

A senior foreign ministry official confirmed to the Post that the SAARC Council of Ministers involving seven member states, except Afghanistan, has been scheduled to meet on September 26. A circular has been sent via the Saarc Secretariat to the seven member states.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has started the groundwork for Nepal’s participation in the 79th UN General Assembly. Officials said that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is likely to lead the Nepali delegation to the general assembly.

On Tuesday, Saarc Secretary General Md Golam Sarwar held talks with Foreign Minister Arzu Rana and discussed the upcoming meeting of the Saarc Council of Ministers on the margins of the UNGA in New York. Sarwar congratulated her on assuming the responsibility of foreign minister and the chair of the SAARC Council of Ministers, the Saarc secretariat said in a statement. The two officials are said to have discussed issues of regional cooperation.

The meeting needs the consent of the seven member states to convene, which Nepal is hopeful about, a joint-secretary at the foreign ministry said. “Since we recently sought their concurrence, it will take some time for approvals to arrive from all member states.”

Saarc is holding the meetings of the programming committee and others, but to ensure a higher level of engagement, it needs to hold the meetings of the Council of Ministers, said the joint-secretary. “As the longest-serving chair of Saarc, we want to hand over the baton to the next member by holding the 19th Saarc Summit.”

The 19th Summit was scheduled to take place in Pakistan, but due to cross-border terrorism and an attack on the Indian Army base, the summit was cancelled. In the last eight years, the Nepali side has made no serious effort to hand over the grouping’s chair. Due to the longstanding rivalry between India and Pakistan, the entire SAARC process has stalled since 2016.

The New York meeting, considered a “tone-setter” to high-level meetings, including the summit, could not occur in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In 2019, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan boycotted each other’s addresses at 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, and the member states pledged to enhance regional integration, but it could not end the logjam in the SAARC process. In 2021, the meeting was called off at the last minute, after member states did not agree to attend. Then-prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had hurriedly appointed Narayan Khadka as foreign minister, in preparation for the New York meeting.

In 2022, the meeting did not happen as Khadka did not travel to New York, owing to the general elections at home. Last year, too, the sidelines meeting did not go ahead after representatives of the member states did not show up. As per the Saarc tradition, any meeting or summit cannot proceed if one member state objects.

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. “If there can be some kind of breakthrough in the upcoming meeting, the SAARC process will undoubtedly move ahead.”

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 postponed until further notice.

Clouds hang over BIMSTEC Summit

The emerging political turmoil in Thailand has cast doubt over the fate of the sixth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

According to The Nation newspaper, the Constitutional Court on Wednesday unseated Srettha Thavisin from the post of prime minister, stating in its verdict that he lacked integrity to hold the top government position because he had decided to appoint an unqualified person as a Cabinet member. According to media reports, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai will serve as acting prime minister until the House of Representatives elects a new premier. With the political confusion in Thailand, the fate of the upcoming Bimstec Summit has also become uncertain, said a Nepali diplomat based in Bangkok.

Besides, other member states of the Bimstec grouping also have difficult domestic situations. With the political upheavals in Bangladesh and Myanmar and the upcoming presidential elections in Sri Lanka, most Bimstec members face some sort of domestic trouble.

The political timeline in Thailand looks uncertain with new government formation likely to take some weeks. The summit is slated for September 4 and 5.

Since the caretaker government is running Thai affairs, the nation’s official position remains unknown, said the Nepali diplomat. A decision on whether the Bimstec summit will happen on schedule or will be postponed could take some more days to come.