Pakistan, China working to establish new regional bloc to replace SAARC: Report

Talks reportedly gained momentum during a recent trilateral meeting in Kunming, China, involving Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh.

Pakistan and China are in advanced discussions to establish a new regional organisation aimed at promoting integration and connectivity across South Asia, potentially replacing the long-dormant South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), according to a report by The Express Tribune on Monday.

Citing diplomatic sources, the report said both Islamabad and Beijing are aligned on the need for a new multilateral platform, as SAARC remains inactive due to ongoing tensions, particularly between India and Pakistan.

Talks reportedly gained momentum during a recent trilateral meeting in Kunming, China, involving Pakistan, China, and Bangladesh.

The diplomatic engagement was seen as part of wider efforts to draw other South Asian nations, including Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Afghanistan, into a fresh grouping that would focus on trade, infrastructure, and regional connectivity.

However, Bangladesh’s caretaker government downplayed any notion of a new political alliance. “We are not forming any alliance,” Foreign Affairs Adviser M Touhid Hossain clarified, stating the Kunming meeting was not political in nature.

Sources told The Express Tribune that while India would be invited to join the proposed grouping, the focus would remain on fostering regional cooperation, particularly in areas where SAARC has failed to deliver.

SAARC, formed in 1985, has seen no summit since 2014, when the last one was held in Kathmandu.

A planned summit in Islamabad in 2016 was scrapped after India pulled out in response to the terrorist attack on an Army camp in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Afghanistan also boycotted the event, effectively bringing the organisation to a standstill.

(With inputs from agencies)