Why Collective Defence Has Become SAARC’s Economic Lifeline

Pramudith D Rupasinghe

There is an old truth in this part of the world that bears repeating: a region that cannot guarantee its own security will struggle to guarantee its own prosperity. 

In 2026, in the backdrop of the US invasion in Iran, and Russian invasion in Ukraine, with global supply chains rattled, great-power rivalry sharpening, and climate shocks arriving with greater frequency, that truth has become unavoidable for South Asia. For the eight nations of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), closer security cooperation is no longer a diplomatic nicety discussed at the margins of summits—it is fast becoming the guardian of economic stability itself.

It is true that SAARC has not had an easy run. The bloc has not held a summit since Kathmandu in 2014, and the 2016 Islamabad summit collapsed in the aftermath of the Uri attack, after which India and several other members withdrew. India has since leaned more heavily on Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) for regional cooperation with its eastern neighbours, while Bangladesh has pushed to revive SAARC even as it pursues Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ties. Earlier this year, the friction resurfaced again. At the Muscat meeting in February, India’s external affairs minister urged Bangladesh to stop ‘normalising terrorism’ through efforts to restart SAARC’s activities, a comment widely read as a pointed reference to Pakistan’s alleged role in the bloc’s paralysis. A former Nepali defence minister has gone further, arguing that this same pattern of obstruction has stalled regional economic integration and cost the bloc dearly.