Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and seven other leaders from South Asian nations will participate in the 17th SAARC Summit to be held at Addu city in Maldives from November 10-11 focused on increasing connectivity among member states and building bridges.
As many as eight government heads from South Asian region including the leaders of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan will meet to discuss regional issues and ink four important agreements.
Another highlight is the expected sidelines’ meeting between Prime Minister Gilani and his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh during which the two leaders will try to give fresh impetus to the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process.
Foreign office officials said the four agreements to be inked by the leaders of SAARC member states will cover the establishment of a SAARC Seed Bank, Multilateral Arrangement on Recognition of Conformity Assessment, Rapid Response to Natural Disaster and Implementation of Regional Standards.
Member states are also expected to adopt a separate SAARC Charter of Democracy. Turkey’s application for observer status in the organization will also be taken up during the Summit. At present nine countries including China, the United States and UK have SAARC observer status. The official engagement of the summit will begin on November 6 with the Standing Committee meeting of SAARC followed by joint secretary-level meetings of the eight member states.
SAARC Foreign Secretaries will meet on November 7-8 to finalise the agenda of the Summit and the Summit Declaration. A meeting of foreign ministers will be held on November 9, prior to the Summit on November 10-11.
The 17th SAARC summit’s theme is ‘Building Bridges.’
