Why is South Asia the least integrated region in the world?

South Asia is a diverse and historically rich region, comprising eight countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, and Afghanistan. It is home to nearly 2 billion people, making it the most populous region in the world after East Asia. However, the World Bank report says that the South Asian Region has become one of the least integrated regions in the world. It is due to several political, economic, and historical factors that have hindered regional cooperation.

South Asian region constitutes 21% of the world’s population and most of its population is young. The region is famous for its cultural diversity, with multiple languages, religions, and traditions. Strategically, it is located between West Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean, making it a crucial hub for trade and geopolitics. Also, India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons, making regional stability crucial for global security.

Economic interdependence is missing

One of the main reasons behind the lack of integration in South Asia is the lack of trade. For instance, the same report cites that intra-EU is 40% while intra-ASEAN trade is 25%. Unfortunately, intra-SAARC trade is merely 5%. Therefore, South Asian countries fail to toe the line recommended by Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane who suggest that economic interdependence brings peace. Subsequently, the earned peace from economic interdependence makes the region strong.

In this backdrop, trade barriers such as high tariffs, poor connectivity, and restrictive trade policies hinder economic cooperation. Many South Asian countries have stronger trade ties with external partners (China, the U.S., and the Middle East) than with their neighbors. Even a World Bank report suggests that bilateral goods trade could be 18 times higher than pre-2019 levels when bilateral trade was $3 billion. Presently, India-Pakistan bilateral trade is merely $500 million.

Political Tensions and Conflicts

The long-standing India-Pakistan rivalry, primarily over Kashmir, has created deep mistrust, limiting cross-border trade and cooperation. India and Pakistan have been facing a structural issue that is hanging in the Ghost partition. Otherwise, Bangladesh, once a part of Pakistan, resolved the border dispute in 2015 without violence. Therefore, due to the trust deficit between the two big players in South Asia, the bond between South Asian countries has not been strong.

Also, Pakistan has not stopped the policy of “Bleeding India by thousand cuts”. Due to this, Pakistan has pushed cross-border terrorism in India in the face of the Mumbai attack in 2008 followed by the Uri attack in 2016 and the Pulwama attacks in 2019. India has been trying hard to isolate Pakistan internationally for its role in promoting terrorism in India. It has severely hampered the prospects of SAARC.

Influence of External Powers

Amid the economic and political differences, Global powers like China and the U.S. play a significant role in South Asia, often shaping bilateral relations over regional integration. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has deepened ties with some countries in South Asia but created geopolitical competition with India. For instance, except India and Bhutan, all South Asian countries are part of the Chinese BRI plan. Also, China feels missing out on the SAARC regional group. Therefore, it makes a deliberate attempt to make it fail.

Also, the US is not lagging in making the South Asian region fail. One of the tactics of the USA is to support underdog countries. For instance, the USA supports India in containing China but not at the cost of making India so great that it could challenge US hegemony as part of the containment policy. To make this reality, the USA supports Pakistan, an underdog country vis-a-vis India to contain India in South Asia. Thus, the USA keeps India and Pakistan in Jelly state as part of her containment policy.

Structural-Functional Issues in SAARC

From the institutional point of view, SAARC was established in 1985 in Dhaka after signing the SAARC charter in the Dhaka Declaration in 1985. Its focus was to promote economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in South Asia. However, due to the lack of political will, it remains paralyzed. For example, the Eminent Persons Group recommended in 1999 that SAARC should strive to make South Asia a Free Trade Area by 2010, a Customs Union by 2015, and an Economic Union like the EU by 2020. These objectives remained a pipe dream.

Also, SAARC agreed on the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in 2004 at the SAARC Summit in Kathmandu. Each Country shall accord national treatment to the products of other Countries. It was agreed that customs duties on all goods traded would be reduced to zero by 2016. Pakistan has, thereafter, blatantly flouted the provisions of SAFTA by drastically limiting the list of items that can be imported from India.

What ought to be done?

To make the South Asian region strong, there is a need to follow the advice of Jacques Derrida who gave the Theory of Deconstruction. In this process, both India and Pakistan need to deconstruct their policies regarding each other and then reconstruct them again. Also, South Asian borders are generally porous, and people from neighboring countries usually migrate to India for work, hence, India along with its neighbors should develop a migration policy.

Along with this, the functionalist approach given by David Mitrani can work in South Asia. It says that peace should be achieved in pieces similar to the European Union. It means keeping high conflictual issues aside and resolving low conflictual issues. Once India and Pakistan attempted it through a composite dialogue. But it wasn’t pondered upon sufficiently. Therefore, there is a need to resolve political issues, boost intra-SAARC trade, and increase people-to-people contact would help the South Asian region establish a trading community and security community. It would further help in integrating South Asia.

Despite a shared history, South Asia remains divided due to political rivalries, economic nationalism, weak institutions, and security concerns. Efforts to improve regional integration will require stronger political will, improved connectivity, reduced trade barriers, and better conflict resolution mechanisms.

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