13th south Asian summit to be held in November in Dhaka

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced in Islamabad Saturday that the 13th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which has been postponed twice, will be held on Nov. 12-13 in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka.

"The dates have been decided with the consultations of all member states," Aziz, who holds the current chairmanship of SAARC,told a news conference in Islamabad.

The 13th SAARC summit, scheduled to be held in Dhaka in January this year, was first postponed after three of the seven SAARC member nations were hit last December by the tsunami disaster that left nearly 300,000 people dead.

It was postponed a second time after India pulled out, citing security situation in Bangladesh and political instability in Nepal.

Aziz said that a council of ministers from the SAARC members will meet from Nov. 9-11 to finalize the agenda for the summit.

The seven-member SAARC was established in 1985 and it groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. SAARC provides a platform for the peoples of South Asia to work together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding. It aims to accelerate the process of economic and social development among the member states.

Source: Xinhua