India Points Finger at Pakistan as Maldives Now Calls For SAARCs Revival

"Everyone in South Asia is aware of which country and what activities are responsible for stymieing SAARC," India said as the Maldives joined Bangladesh in calling for the grouping's rejuvenation. New Delhi: Responding to Maldivian president Mohamed Muizzu's remarks addressing the stalling of SAARC, India on Tuesday (July 28) reiterated its stance that it is Pakistan which is responsible for “stymieing” the South Asian grouping. “India favours strong regional cooperation and has been working towards it for several decades now. Everyone in South Asia is aware of which country and what activities are responsible for stymieing SAARC,” said external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a press briefing. “After all, cooperation does require goodwill,” he added. SAARC or the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is a multilateral forum comprising all countries in the region, including Afghanistan. However, after India and other countries boycotted its 2016 summit in Islamabad after the Uri terror attack, the grouping's 2014 summit in Kathmandu has remained its last one to date and the bloc has been more or less moribund amid Indo-Pakistani tensions. Muizzu in his remarks on Maldivian independence day this past Sunday (July 26) addressed the grouping's situation and appeared to call on India and Pakistan to hold dialogue “in the interest of regional peace and cooperation”, in addition to offering to mediate between the two nations. According to a Maldivian readout of his address, Muizzu “addressed the current impasse” in SAARC and, while underlining that “differences should be resolved through dialogue”, called on “SAARC member states to return to the negotiating table in the interest of regional peace and cooperation”. “He added that the Maldives stands ready to serve as a mediator.” Male has joined Dhaka in recent months in calling for a rejuvenation of SAARC . Bangladesh's foreign minister Khalilur Rahman had earlier this year expressed “unwavering support and commitment to revitalise” the grouping and said that reviving it is a ‘major foreign policy objective’ of the new Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government of Tarique Rahman. However when Khalilur Rahman's predecessor, interim foreign adviser Touhid Hossain, had called for a revival of the SAARC foreign secretaries' conclave while meeting external affairs minister S. Jaishankar last year, New Delhi retorted that Dhaka “should not normalise terrorism”. At the time – in February 2025 – Jaiswal had said the same thing he said this Tuesday: “Everyone in South Asia is aware of which country and what activities are responsible for stymieing SAARC. EAM [Jaishankar] conveyed that it is important that Bangladesh should not normalise terrorism.” The last meeting of the SAARC foreign secretaries was in 2016.