South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation’ (SAARC) is a regional initiative among South Asian states to evolve cooperation since 1985 onwards. 

Role of SAARC: 

It can be identified as follows : • It consists of seven members to encourage mutual harmony and understanding. 

• SAARC has initiated SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement) to free trade zones for whole South Asia for collective economic security. 

• SAARC has projected on economic development of its member states to reduce their dependencies on the non-regional powers. 

Limitations: 

SAARC is growing slowly due to political differences among its member states- 

• Only the conflicts led to bilateral issues as Kashmir problem between India and Pakistan. 

• Some of the India’s neighbours fear that India intends to dominate them by influencing their societies and politics. 

• SAARC members are from among the developing or least developing countries which creates insufficiency of funds.