The UN Secretary General was very recently in India for an official visit. Should have he come to Nepal to broker an agreement among political parties? What is the real role of the UN in brokering peace agreements? Is its power declining or simply the fact that there are countries like Libya, where the UN is currently brokering an agreement in Genève, which deserve more attention at the moment?

Gauri Khandekar, is the Head of Programme-Agora Asia-Europe at FRIDE, a European Think Tank for Global Action, one of the leading worldwide research center in international relations . Gauri was in Kathmandu for the recent SAARC meeting. After almost two months, here we have some reflections about the current status of South Asian regional integration with some reference to current EU affairs.