Are bilateral and multilateral agreements have more importance than the agreements of regional groupings? SAARC

Are bilateral and multilateral agreements have more importance than the agreements of regional groupings?

 SAARC:

In south Asia there are historically developed mistrust, non-friendly relations among the nations. Due to this countries cannot come to the common consensus and rely upon the bilateral agreements.

These unwanted attributes can be categorised as

1.   1.    Unresolved border issues
2.       Political instability
3.       Ethnic conflicts
4.       External influence
5.       Huge developmental disparities

Unresolved border issues: The best example for this in the south Asian region is IND-PAK Kashmir conflict which has not been resolved from the time of independence. Due to this logjam there is no developments in the relations between these countries in the other sectors say, economic development assistance. Even though India has given most favoured nation status to Pakistan the latter has not given the same to the former. Recently Pakistan has opposed the secretary level talks as it wants Kashmir issue to be sorted out first by giving it foremost priority which is not generally agreed between these countries.

When it comes to Nepal, its ruling communist party inclination towards PRC has damaged the relations with India and after Prime Minister Oli’s visit to India after amending the constitution (ARTICLE 42, 84, 256) it is hoped that the relations would get strengthened.

The border issue with PRC and IND makes these nations to gain influences over other countries both economically and politically to secure its border interest.

The great step toward the settlement of border dispute is Land Boundary Agreement between IND and Bangladesh. It has opened a new chapter in the relations between the two countries.

Political instability:

When there is no stable government in a country it is difficult to have a friendly relation. It cannot have a say in the regional grouping as it concentrates more in consolidating its political power.  Until 2010 one does not know which group is controlling the politics in Afghanistan. (Taliban or legal government?). So it’s not advisable to have share of consensus in the regional heads meetings. The same happened in Silence when there was the rise of LTTE (Tamil-Sinhala conflict).

Apart from that a party with vast opposition is also undesirable to have in power because the signed agreements may not get ratified in their parliaments. This is applied both for regional and bilateral agreements.

  

Ethnic conflicts:

These are the major platform for the political and economic instability of a country. These can be triggered by the resentment of people and by the vested interest of external powers. The conflict turns into armed rebellion when the responsible groups are provided with arms. These arms can be provided by the fourth world group or the other vested external power who wants the government to be replaced by a friendlier one.

The rise of ISIS can be quoted as best example for the ethnic conflict which destabilised the legal political authority in Syria and Iraq.

In south Asia the Taliban, Al Qaeda are the ethnic terror groups which destabilised the Afghanistan and responsible for the illegal opium trade across the Southern parts of Afghanistan.

External influences:

The ideological differences between the major regional powers may have influence over the foreign policies of smaller or rather smaller countries in that region. This was the vivid situation the cold war era. After the cold war the powerful nations in a region create a hegemonic influence over the countries to secure their own national interests.  China, India can be quoted arguably in south Asia.

China’s one road- one belt initiative is considered as ground breaking project in economically interlinking the Europe, Middle East Asia, central Asia, South Asia with China and Far East. Its maritime silk route links the African horn with the Asia. But countries are sceptic about Chinese plans and say that China has initiated this plan to gain economic influence over the central and Middle East Asia and counter the growing power of Asia (India).

Huge developmental disparities:

The disparities due to the conservatism and the policies adopted the governments make these countries impossible to completely open their markets to trade. This is to protect their indigenous entrepreneurs and industries.  

These attributes make it difficult for the groupings to arrive at common consensus and so they bank on the bilateral agreements which are comparably efficient as they are signed in the areas of common interest and does not involve the whole region. At the same time it can be argued that even SAARC provides space for bilateral and multilateral agreements, but these cannot be ensured by the group due to mistrust and instability among the nations.

However agreements made by the groupings would be more efficient rather than the bilateral because It includes development of while region. EU is a strong example for the effective regional grouping.