Role of SAARC :
It can be identified as follows :
1. ‘South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation’ (SAARC) is a regional initiative among South Asian states to evolve cooperation since 1985 onwards.
2. It consists of seven members to encourage mutual harmony and understanding.
3. SAARC has initiated SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement) to free trade zones for whole south Asia for collective economic security.
4. SAARC has projected on economic development of its member states to reduce their dependencies on the non-regional powers.
Limitations :
SAARC is growing slowly due to political differences among its member states-
• Only the conflicts led to bilateral issues as Kashmir problem between India and Pakistan.
• Some of the India’s neighbours fear that India intends to dominate them by influencing their societies and politics.
• SAARC members are from among the developing or least developing countries which creates insufficiency of funds
