SAARC The Regional Integration in South Asia

The first concept of regional cooperation in South Asia was introduced in November 1980 by the former president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman. Having met for the first time in Colombo, Sri Lanka in April 1981 with the seven countries foreign secretaries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, all felt affect regional cooperation in the sub continent. Subsequently, after few months there was a meeting by all seven countries committee to look for sinews of regional cooperation. In 1983, in New Delhi the seven countries foreign ministers met for their first time and they agreed to take up the Declaration on SAARC . This was followed up by the proposal of five areas of cooperation, namely, agriculture rural development telecommunications meteorology and health and population activities. But after earmarking these five areas, the member countries felt the need to include some more avenues of cooperation, such as, such as transport postal services scientific and technological cooperation and sports, arts, and culture. In April, 2007, Afghanistan joined as new member of SAARC. On the other hand, China and Japan were granted observer status by SAARC. Sharif Md Mithun "SAARC: The Regional Integration in South Asia" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-5 , August 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd50485.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/50485/saarc-the-regional-integration-in-south-asia/sharif-md-mithun