Issues relating to railways, road and energy assistance, and how the commitments and programmes could be implemented were the main areas of focus at yesterday’s meeting held by delegations of foreign secretaries of all eight member states of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).
The delegates met yesterday as the 41st session of the Standing Committee of Saarc began in Kathmandu ahead of the 18th Saarc Summit scheduled for November 26-27, The Himalayan Times reported.
The two-day meeting, which is expected to ratify the agenda endorsed by the Programming Committee of the Joint-Secretary-level that met on Saturday, will also discuss the state of implementation of earlier decisions made by the Standing Committee.
Mutual assistance over poverty alleviation, information technology and energy promotion is also expected to be sought at the meeting.
Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque is leading the Bangladeshi delegation while Indian, Nepalese and Afghan delegations are headed by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, acting foreign secretary Shankar Das Bairagi and Deputy Director for Regional Cooperation Seddiq Rasuli respectively.
The delegation from Maldives is led by Foreign Secretary Ali Naseer Mohamed, and those from Pakistan and Sri Lanka are headed by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs Kshenuka Senewiratne respectively.
The meeting received suggestions from the Saarc member countries as Nepal, the host country, had sent the preliminary draft of the declaration to all the member states.
The Himalayan Times said the Programming Committee on Saturday discussed possibilities of closing down some regional centres of the Saarc while merging several other centres. 11 centres are functional at present in the Saarc region.
