South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organization of eight countries in South Asia. It was established in 1985 when the Heads of State of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka formally adopted the charter. Afghanistan joined as the 8th member of SAARC in 2007. To date, 18th Summits have been held and Nepal’s former Foreign Secretary is the current Secretary General of SAARC. The 19th Summit was to be hosted by Pakistan in 2016, which never happened.
India announced Rs 300 crore annual budgetary financial assistance for Bangladesh, up from Rs 200 crore in the outgoing fiscal 2021-22. The allocation of the financial assistance has been provided for the Ministry of External Affairs.
Myanmar will get Rs 600 crore, Rs 200 crore more than last financial year, and Nepal will get Rs 750 crore from India in the coming fiscal.
India has allocated Rs 200 crore as aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in for 2022-23 even though New Delhi does not have diplomatic presence in Kabul where its embassy has remained closed since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August last.
The government of Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan had in the last fiscal received around Rs 348 crore from India.
The Maldives at Rs 360 crore (as against Rs 250 crore in 2021-22) also saw an increase in India’s annual aid provision in today’s budget document.
At Rs 2,266.24 crore in 2022-23, Bhutan is once again be the highest recipient of India’s annual financial aid. But this is lower than Rs 3,004.95 crore in 2021-22 fiscal.
The second highest recipient in the coming financial year of the allocation will be the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius — Rs 900 crore.
