♤ For the first time member countries at the Thimpu Summit in Bhutan, marking the 25th

anniversary, in 2010 expressed their frustration with SAARC’s sluggish progress.

♤ The then Prime Minister of India Manmoha Singh expressed his disappointment by saying that “the glass of regional cooperation, regional development and regional integration is half empty” and emphasized that “the region must be better connected, empowered, fed and educated” to achieve comparable success with other regional organizations.