Beyond Bilateralism: How Reviving SAARC Can Reset Bangladesh-India Relations

Abstract

For nearly a decade, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has existed mostly as a memory — a summit that stopped happening, a secretariat in Kathmandu keeping the lights on, an idea eight governments still nominally endorse but none dares revive. Since India suspended its participation in 2016, SAARC has drifted from dormancy to irrelevance, and most observers have stopped expecting it to matter again. That assumption deserves to be tested — and Bangladesh, at this moment, is better positioned than any other South Asian state to test it.

This article imagines precisely that possibility—not as fantasy, but as an elegant strategic move: leveraging India’s quest for regional legitimacy ahead of the BRICS Summit. The article stresses Bangladesh’s growing strategic agency to revive SAARC and reset the relationship with India through regional multilateralism, beyond bilateral grievances.