SAARC & BIMSTEC have disaster relief plans in place. But both MIA as Nepal struggles after floods
A glacial lake outburst and landslide-triggered flash flood struck Nepal's Rasuwa district in late August 2026, killing over a thousand people, leaving thousands missing, and threatening downstream areas in Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Despite both SAARC and BIMSTEC having disaster management frameworks and institutions in place, neither regional grouping played a visible coordinating role in the relief response.
India emerged as the primary bilateral responder, deploying tunnel rescue teams that coordinated directly with Nepal's Army at hydropower project sites, ahead of assistance from China, Japan, the US, UAE, and South Korea.
Experts attributed the regional bodies' inaction to a lack of political trust among South Asian states, and to SAARC's continued institutional paralysis.
SAARC's Disaster Management Architecture
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), established in 1985 with eight members (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), created dedicated disaster cooperation mechanisms well before this flood: a Comprehensive Framework on Disaster Management (2006) and the SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, signed at the 17th SAARC Summit (Maldives, November 2011) in the wake of the 2010 Pakistan floods. The Agreement obligates member states to prepare Standard Operating Procedures for cross-border disaster assistance, and it entered into force in September 2016 after ratification by all members.
Key Details
- SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC): originally set up in 2006 at the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi; its Interim Unit was re-established in November 2016 under the Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and formally inaugurated in May 2017.
- The SDMC's mandate was later expanded to absorb three other regional centres (Meteorological Research, Forestry, and Coastal Zone Management).
- SAARC summits have been effectively suspended since 2016, after India and other members withdrew from the scheduled Islamabad summit following the Uri terror attack, paralysing much of SAARC's institutional functioning since.
Despite having a functioning disaster management centre and a ratified rapid-response agreement, SAARC's broader political dysfunction meant it played no visible coordinating role in the Nepal flood response — illustrating how institutional design cannot substitute for political trust among member states.
BIMSTEC's Disaster Cooperation Gap
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was established on 6 June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration, initially as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand), with Myanmar joining later in 1997 and Bhutan and Nepal joining in February 2004, bringing the current membership to seven states. Unlike SAARC, BIMSTEC has functioned relatively smoothly as a forum, but disaster management remains one of its weaker institutionalized sectors.
Key Details
- BIMSTEC finalized a Plan of Action to improve disaster preparedness and coordination and has conducted tabletop exercises among members, but lacks a binding rapid-response mechanism comparable to SAARC's 2011 agreement.
- India proposed setting up a Centre of Excellence for Disaster Management under BIMSTEC at a recent summit, but it remains at the proposal stage.
- BIMSTEC groups two SAARC members outside Pakistan-centric disputes (India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) with two ASEAN members (Myanmar, Thailand), making it India's preferred alternative regional vehicle following SAARC's stagnation.
Even though BIMSTEC includes Nepal and functions more actively than SAARC, its disaster cooperation remains at the planning and exercise stage rather than an operational rapid-response mechanism, so it too had no substantive role once the floods struck.
India's Neighbourhood-First Bilateral Response
In the absence of effective multilateral coordination, India's bilateral disaster diplomacy under its "Neighbourhood First" policy filled the gap, with rapid deployment of the National Disaster Response Force and tunnel rescue and forensic teams working directly with Nepal's Army.
Key Details
- India has previously led similar first-responder efforts in the region, including after the 2015 Nepal earthquake (Operation Maitri) and cyclone relief in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
- This bilateral model is often described as more effective than regional frameworks precisely because it avoids the consensus-based decision-making that has hampered SAARC.
India's positioning as the first and most substantial responder — ahead of China and other external powers — reflects the practical primacy of bilateral "Neighbourhood First" diplomacy over stalled regional institutions in South Asian disaster response.
- SAARC: established 1985, 8 members; Disaster Management Centre based in Gandhinagar, Gujarat since 2016-17.
- SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters: signed 2011 (17th Summit, Maldives), entered into force September 2016.
- SAARC summits suspended since 2016 after the Uri attack fallout.
- BIMSTEC: established 6 June 1997 (Bangkok Declaration), 7 members (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand).
- The Rasuwa flood killed over 1,000 people, with thousands missing; India deployed rescue teams working alongside Nepal's Army, ahead of China, Japan, the US, UAE, and South Korea.