Saarc not moving forward, 1 member spreading cross-border terror: EAM

The SAARC is "not moving forward" and meetings of the regional grouping have not happened in the last few years as one of its members is practising "cross-border terrorism", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.

The EAM's remarks on the stalling of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), without naming any country, comes ahead of his scheduled visit to Pakistan mid-October to attend a key meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Islamabad.

The SAARC has not been very effective since 2016 as its biennial summits have not taken place since the last one at Kathmandu in 2014.

"At the moment, SAARC is not moving forward. We have not had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason, there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism, at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more," Jaishankar said in response to a query on revival of the grouping at an event here.

"If you are all sitting together and ...