Regional groupings in Asia: Should SAARC follow the ASEAN model?

This paper attempts to compare two Asian regional groupings, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), with special reference to the influence of geopolitical factors in their creation and development. The main features and mechanisms of cooperation within the two groupings are examined and compared and their future prospects, particularly for achieving regional stability and growth, are analysed. The aim of the comparison is not so much to assess their relative performance (as ASEAN is almost two decades older than SAARC) as to determine to which extent ASEAN is a valid model for SAARC, given the different geopolitical settings and different levels of development of the two groupings.