The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be held in the first half of 2022 and will be hosted by our neighboring country Pakistan. The final decision if India will attend the summit this year is yet to be made as the bilateral relations between the two nations are at an all-time low.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Minister of Pakistan has made a statement in this regard and said that Pakistan is ready to have India in the summit virtually but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still weighing his options to attend the summit. According to some sources, he may attend the summit because of the humanitarian crisis that has been soaring in Afghanistan after the Taliban has taken over the country. New Delhi had also sent food and essential items to Kabul via Pakistan when the crisis was very severe in Afghanistan.
It will be difficult for Modi to attend the summit virtually also because India has not recognized the Taliban government so far and chances are that Pakistan will invite the head of the interim regime of Afghanistan which is being led by the Taliban. The summit was due to take place back in 2016 in Pakistan but India had refused to participate then keeping in mind the Uri Terror attack that took place in Jammu and Kashmir.
India made sure to isolate Pakistan by nudging other SAARC members diplomatically including Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan to not participate in the SAARC summit as well that year.
Prime Minister Modi had relaunched the process somewhat in 2020 by holding a special virtual meeting of all the SAARC leaders in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and had pledged to make a contribution worth Rs. 10 million to a SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund. Thar virtual meet was not attended by the Prime Minister of Pakistan but by one of his representatives.
Pakistan has stated that the main agenda in the summit this year would be the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. New Delhi and Islamabad are also in talks currently to send 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan and the matter is being held back by the way the shipment will be sent. The decision of sending the shipment through Indian trucks or Afghan trucks is not made yet.
All these issues will be resolved seamlessly apparently in the SAARC summit as per the statements made by Pakistan. The dates for the summit have not been finalized as of now, but according to some sources, it will happen in the first half of the year because Pakistan is also bound to hold general elections in October.
Pakistan is more adamant about inviting India virtually or physically because the last time India boycotted the summit, some other nations boycotted it as well. And some strong statements have been made against India by the Pakistan officials.
