SAARC has not lived up to its potential: WH

SAARC has not lived up to its potential, a top White House official said and “regretted” that the regional summit has to be postponed this year after most of the member countries pulled out of it.

“It is regrettable that the SAARC meeting could not be held this year,” Peter Lavoy, Senior Director for South Asia at the National Security Council, White House said.

“In fact SAARC has not lived up to the potential of other regional groupings like ASEAN. That grouping has countries with similar frictions, similar boarder disputes, ethnic concerns and other problems at the time ASEAN was created,” he said. But SAARC has not been able to provide that platform, which has negative effect on the relationships, Lavoy said.

 “I think, the bottom line is we do not try to balance this relationship,” he said, adding that the Obama Administration has been focused on deepening and broadening its relationship with India.