{"id":1113,"date":"2026-05-23T08:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2026-05-29T08:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T08:35:41","slug":"saarc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/23\/saarc\/","title":{"rendered":"SAARC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-green-cyan-color\"><strong><strong><strong>SAARC<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/mark><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\"><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong>About<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/mark><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)\u00a0is a<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>regional intergovernmental organization\u00a0<\/strong>established\u00a0with the signing of the<strong>\u00a0SAARC Charter<\/strong>\u00a0in<strong>\u00a0Dhaka<\/strong>\u00a0in 1985.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Initially founded with 7 members, SAARC now\u00a0comprises\u00a0<strong>eight Member States<\/strong>:\u00a0<strong>Afghanistan\u00a0<\/strong>(joined in 2007),\u00a0<strong>Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0<\/strong>and<strong>\u00a0Sri Lanka.<\/strong>\u00a0\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There are<strong>\u00a0nine observers<\/strong>\u00a0namely Australia, China, EU, Iran, Japan, Korea, Mauritius,\u00a0Myanmar\u00a0and USA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"385\" height=\"368\" src=\"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-5.png 385w, https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-5-300x287.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 385px) 100vw, 385px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The main\u00a0objective\u00a0of the Association\u00a0include\u00a0<strong>promotion of welfare of the peoples of South Asia<\/strong>\u00a0and to improve their quality of life.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Decisions<\/strong>\u00a0at all levels are to be taken\u00a0on the\u00a0<strong>basis of\u00a0unanimity<\/strong>;\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>bilateral and contentious issues are excluded<\/strong>\u00a0from the deliberations of the Association.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Secretariat of the Association\u00a0is located in\u00a0<strong>Kathmandu, Nepal<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><em>Note:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>SAARC has been<strong>\u00a0dormant<\/strong>\u00a0and has\u00a0<strong>not held a formal summit since 2014,\u00a0<\/strong>in keeping with India&#8217;s position of refusing to engage with Pakistan over its support for terrorism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SAARC About<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organisations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1115,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/materials.simplycurrentaffairs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}