1. Thirty years after it began - the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) has made middling progress. 2. Power trading and evacuation is continuing despite belligerence on the China-Vietnam border.(c)Each time a Saarc summit ends with relative disappointment -” as the one in Kathmandu did last month -” the same cries emerge - essentially blamingIndia and Pakistan and their bilateral problems for holding Saarc hostage. 4. This is largely true - and Saarc has had to wait forIndia and Pakistan to sort out their issues. 5. The Chinese have exploited a vacuum and moved into many of the Saarc countries - unencumbered by the institutional inertia of the association and happy to do easier - bilateral deals.