South Asia
Who agreed this list? The governments that signed a charter in Dhaka on 8 December 1985 founded the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and its founding membership is the 7 filed here, name for name. Afghanistan joined that body in 2007; the catalogue files it under Central Asia, and the two rosters have differed since.
7 countries
Common questions
Questions about South Asia
Which countries are in South Asia?
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which is the membership that signed the SAARC charter in Dhaka on 8 December 1985 and the roster the catalogue files. Wider readings are in print. The M49 standard of the UN Statistics Division files Afghanistan and Iran under Southern Asia alongside these; SAARC itself has counted Afghanistan a member since 2007; and a strictly physical reading of the subcontinent leaves the Maldives outside the line, since the atolls sit on a submarine ridge rather than on the landmass.
Is Afghanistan part of South Asia?
It depends on the roster. Afghanistan was admitted to SAARC in 2007 and is filed under Southern Asia by the UN Statistics Division, so both of those readings include it. This catalogue files Afghanistan under Central Asia, with the five post-Soviet republics it borders, and records the SAARC membership on its page rather than arguing the point.
Why is Nepal fifteen minutes ahead of India?
Nepal keeps UTC+05:45 and India UTC+05:30, so a clock in Kathmandu reads a quarter of an hour later than one in New Delhi. Quarter-hour offsets are rare, and the offsets across this group run from +05:00 in Pakistan and the Maldives to +06:00 in Bangladesh and Bhutan, a spread of three quarters of an hour end to end.
Which South Asian countries are landlocked?
Bhutan and Nepal. Each borders China to the north and India on its other sides, and neither has a frontier with a third state. The rest hold coastline on the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea or the Indian Ocean.