Pakistan says an emerging three-way cooperation with Bangladesh and China could be expanded. But will a new SAARC without India find takers across South Asia? Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has said that a recent trilateral initiative between Bangladesh, China and Islamabad could be “expanded” to include other regional nations and beyond.

“We have opposed … zero-sum approaches and consistently stressed the imperative of cooperation rather than confrontation,” he told the Islamabad Conclave forum on Wednesday.