Next South Asian summit to be held in Dhaka

The 13th Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be held inDhaka, capital of Bangladesh, on Jan. 9-11, 2005.

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told a press briefing here on Tuesday that the above schedule was clinched by all the seven foreign ministers of the member states during the first session of the ongoing two-day SAARC ministerial moot.

The ministers, during the first day session, also held discussions on regional cooperations in economic, commercial and cultural sectors, said the spokesman.

A cooperative banking system in the region was brought into detailed reviewing, he added.

Foreign ministers from India and Pakistan are to hold a bilateral meeting Wednesday on the sidelines of the ministerial moot, Masood Khan said.

They are likely to discuss confidence-building measures, peace and security, and most sensitively, the issue of Kashmir, said thespokesman.

The two nuclear powers in the region have fought three wars since they got independence from Britain in 1947.

Earlier this year, a dialogue process between the two arch-rivals started, creating "a better atmosphere" for the SAARC meeting.

The ministerial meeting is supposed to focus the attention on economic cooperation, but the bilateral contacts between India andPakistan have been catching much of the flashlight.

Source: Xinhua