China-South Asia grouping

The China-South Asian Countries Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Center was inaugurated on 8 July in China.
Ambassadors of South Asian countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh attended and addressed the ceremony. India, Maldives and Bhutan did not participate in the ceremonies.
The Centre’s stated aim is to pool strength, integrate resources, and exchange wisdom to support and help the South Asian countries’ economic development and livelihood improvement, jointly promoting the cause of poverty reduction.

China also set up the China-South Asia Emergency Supply Reserve recently.
The reserve is a joint stockpile of emergency supplies as part of efforts to tackle the covid-19 pandemic and other crises.

The China-South Asian Countries Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Center is being seen as an alternative to the eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which has been inactive since 2014 when leaders of the India-led grouping met in Kathmandu for their summit.
The 2016 summit was to be hosted by Pakistan but it had to be called off after India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan cited terrorism emanating from Pakistan as a major threat to the region and announced their boycott.
Officially India has not reacted to the two centres set up by China and its immediate neighbours joining the China-led initiative.

Denying that the creation of the China-South Asian Countries Emergency Supplies Reserve, and the Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Centre was meant to exclude India, Bangladesh Foreign Minister said that India can join these initiatives if it so desires.
The absence of India from the grouping as well as from a series of consultations on COVID relief between the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister and different combinations of all SAARC member countries (other than India and Bhutan) led some experts to suggest this was meant to be a “Minus India” initiative. India is the only country of all eight SAARC nations that has not requested or accepted Chinese COVID vaccines.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in 1985 with 7 founding members.
SAARC now comprises eight Member States: Afghanistan (joined in 2007), Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The Secretariat of the Association is located in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The objectives of the Association include promotion of welfare of the peoples of South Asia and to improve their quality of life; to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realize their full potential.
Decisions at all levels are to be taken on the basis of unanimity; and bilateral and contentious issues are excluded from the deliberations of the Association.

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