ASEAN and SAARC in the Contemporary World

One of the reasons for accelerating regional integration in Asia is shared interest among neighbors in a particular region that the stronger the regional links, the greater the possibility of development through economic cooperation and mutual trust by avoiding conflicts. Both ASEAN and SAARC have emerged as crucial regional organizations in Asia based on mutual interests and common development goals among the member countries. Bilateral and contentious issues cannot be tackled properly in the multilateral forums of SAARC or ASEAN; thus Indo-Pakistan conflicts or ASEAN-Myanmar issues have been overshadowing regional meetings to some extent in recent years. The non-interference policies driven by ‘Asian Way’ of the member states in ASEAN and SAARC largely restrain the credibility of these regional organizations in several political and socio-economic crises. However, common interest is that the members can get on with each other to produce win-win situation on the basis of their respect for sovereignty. The purpose of this work is to explore new dynamics of regional economic integration in South and Southeast Asia in the light of a rapidly changing world.