ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: No single country in South Asia, including India, can effectively cope with its security issues. Regional cooperation is, therefore, the only way forward for South Asian nations.

This was the view of Farooq Subhan, a former foreign secretary of Bangladesh. He was speaking at a discussion, “Security architecture for South Asia” organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI).

Mr Subhan said the mistrust between the regional members was the main impediment to South Asia’s development, adding that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) had failed primarily because of such bilateral disputes.

He said various traditional and non-traditional security threats were being faced by the region, including terrorism, water security, health security, and the energy security. To tackle them, he proposed joint initiatives such as exercises by armed forces, disaster management and economic cooperation between the nations.—Asad Najeeb