Pakistan has proposed schedule for the 19th Saarc summit to be held next year.
“They have proposed three tentative dates for the next summit,” said an official of the Foreign Ministry.
According to the first option, the Saarc Programming Committee meeting at the director general-level will be held on November 6, followed by a Standing Committee meeting of foreign secretaries for the next two days.
The meeting of the Council of Ministers at the foreign minister-level discussion has been proposed for November 9, while the summit would take place on November 10-11.
The other dates are November 13-18 and November 20-25 when the meeting formats would remain same, the official said.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) is an economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries located in South Asia. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are the members of Saarc.
“It is too early to select a date, and Bangladesh and other countries will decide on holding the next Saarc summit at a convenient date,” the official added.
The 18th Saarc Summit held in Kathmandu in 2014 proposed that the regional group sits biannually.
The first Saarc summit was held in 1985 in Dhaka and then it was decided that it would be held annually. But, only 18 summits could take place in the last 30 years.
The combined economy of Saarc is the third largest in the world in terms of GDP (PPP adjusted) after the United States and China, and fifth largest in the terms of nominal GDP.
The Saarc nations comprise 3% of the world's area and contain 21% (around 1.7 billion) of the world's total population and around 9.12% of global economy as of 2015.