ISLAMABAD/ PATNA: Leaders of South Asian nations held a video conference on Sunday, with the Indian premier appealing for a joint strategy to control the spread of coronavirus, and Pakistan urging India to lift the lockdown of Kashmir to make this very cooperation possible.

“We must combat coronavirus together and avoid knee jerk reactions,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while addressing South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) leaders.

Except for Pakistan, all heads of state of the eight-member group participated in the conference which was held after a six years’ break. Islamabad was represented by Dr. Zafar Mirza, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special assistant on public health.

“In view of the health emergency it is imperative that all lockdown in disputed territory must be lifted immediately,” Mirza said during the video conference.

SAARC comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It came into being in 1985 with a stated purpose of regional and economic integration. Since the beginning its work has been hampered by tensions between India and Pakistan. The group’s last meeting in Islamabad in 2016 was called off following Indian-Pakistani hostilities related to Kashmir, which both countries claim in full but rule it in part.

India revoked the semi-autonomy of its part of the region in August, and since has been keeping the Muslim-majority territory under lockdown and a communications blackout.

“It is a matter of concern that Covid-19 has been reported from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Mirza said while urging India to “open up communications and movement” to facilitate dissemination of information and distribution of medical supplies in the region in the wake of the global epidemic.

Modi, who initiated the conference, proposed creating a Covid-19 emergency fund to be used by South Asian nations to combat the spread of the disease.

“This could be based on voluntary contributions from all of us. India can start with an initial offer of 10 million US dollars for this fund,” he said. “We are facing a serious challenge and don’t know what shape the pandemic will take in coming days.”

Modi’s call on South Asian nations “to chalk out a strong strategy to fight coronavirus” came as a surprise, as experts argue he has been ignoring the regional group.

“Modi’s sudden interest in SAARC is incongruous when he hardly took any solid initiatives to re-strengthen the regional cooperation,” SubHajjit Naskar, assistant professor of international relations at Jadavpur University in Kolkata told Arab News.

“His government has made SAARC a thing of past while he particularly isolated Pakistan and started promoting BIMSTEC just to side line Islamabad,” Naskar said, referring to the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, which comprises Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.

During Sunday’s video meeting, representatives of other SAARC member countries also shared their experiences and measures in dealing with the deadly outbreak and emphasized the need for regional cooperation and data sharing for timely action against the global epidemic.

The virus has infected more than 156,000 people worldwide and killed over 5,800.