Haroon Khawaja
The changing geopolitical realities of the world today may be creating conditions for the emergence of a new regional platform focused simultaneously on connectivity, economic cooperation, and energy security across South, West and Central Asia. A possible framework is CRISP, comprising China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan.
The idea may appear ambitious at first. Yet the weakening relevance and growing structural contradictions within existing regional platforms suggest that time may be ripe for a new architecture better aligned with the emerging multipolar world.
The BRICS Dilemma: BRICS was originally conceived as a platform for emerging powers seeking greater influence in global economic governance. Over time, it evolved to represent the Global South and a possible alternate to a Western-dominated financial order. Collectively, BRICS countries today account for approximately 40% of global GDP and represent nearly half of the world’s population. Yet despite its demographic and economic weight, BRICS increasingly faces internal contradictions, most notably the growing rivalry between China and India.
India’s presidency of BRICS in 2026 has highlighted these limitations. The organization has struggled to produce major new initiatives, and even consensus-building at recent summits reportedly faced difficulties. India’s broader strategic posture continues to reflect a balancing act between the United States and China, with New Delhi appearing to tilt progressively toward Washington in economic, defense, and Indo-Pacific policy frameworks. This naturally creates tensions within a bloc in which China remains the dominant economic force. The result is an increasingly ambiguous strategic identity for BRICS.
The SAARC Paralysis: At the South Asian level, SAARC has also lost momentum over the past decade. The last SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014. A subsequent summit scheduled in Islamabad never materialized after India declined participation following rising bilateral tensions with Pakistan. Since then, SAARC has remained largely dormant.
The inability of South Asia’s largest regional organization to function effectively has deprived nearly two billion people of meaningful regional economic integration and coordinated development. This vacuum creates the need for an alternative framework that is less vulnerable to bilateral rivalries.
SCO, Important but Different: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) remains a highly significant platform, but its orientation differs fundamentally from both BRICS and the proposed CRISP framework.
SCO is primarily focused on counterterrorism and security. It includes China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Iran, and the Central Asian republics, making it one of the most strategically important Eurasian organizations in the world. However, SCO is not designed as a comprehensive economic integration and energy connectivity platform.
The proposed CRISP platform could help address the strategic gaps left by limitations within existing regional groupings. Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia collectively account for approximately 40% of the global natural gas and 30% of the global oil reserves. China is the world’s largest manufacturing economy and among the largest energy consumers on the planet. Pakistan occupies a unique geographical position connecting South Asia, Central Asia, Western China, and the Arabian Sea.
Pakistan’s strategic importance lies not merely in geography, but in connectivity.
Under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China has invested tens of billions of dollars into roads, highways, ports, and infrastructure networks linking western China to Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast. Gwadar Port, one of the region’s most strategically located deep-sea ports, has the potential to emerge as a critical trade and energy gateway for the wider region. In addition, Pakistan’s planned ML-1 railway modernization project could eventually strengthen north-south trade connectivity from Karachi toward China and Central Asia.
Beyond the Initial Five, CRISP need not remain limited to its founding members. Over time, the framework could naturally expand to include Central Asian republics, South Caucasus states, and potentially smaller South Asian economies such as Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Trade routes and maritime access would pass through Pakistan toward the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Central Asia and the South Caucasus would gain critical access to warm-water trade corridors while the smaller South Asian countries can find critical trade connections with Central Asia.
CRISP could therefore gradually evolve into a broader architecture for the region and, unlike traditional alliances, its purpose would not be ideological confrontation but trade, energy cooperation, and connectivity.
The world is steadily transitioning away from a rigid unipolar order toward a more complex multipolar environment. The institutions of the future may not necessarily resemble Cold War-style military alliances. Instead, future partnerships may increasingly be shaped by geo-economics rather than traditional geopolitics. CRISP could become one such platform.
In the absence of an effective SAARC, amid the structural contradictions within BRICS, and alongside the security-focused role of SCO, there is growing space for a new regional architecture capable of linking South, West, and Central Asia into a coherent framework of cooperation.
Whether CRISP eventually materializes or not, the geopolitical logic behind such an initiative is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
The author is a Governance and Economy analyst and a Reform Advocate