KHATMANDU – Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that he hadspoken to both his Indian and Pakistani counterparts to resume the stalledSAARC process by sorting out their differences.
Unveiling a book titled ‘Effectiveness of SAARC and Regional Conference’ ata function organised by the Federal Parliament Secretariat here yesterday,Prime Minister Oli said that building friendly relations based on mutualunderstanding, cooperation and collaboration among SAARC member states wasessential for maintaining peace and prosperity in the region, DNA hasreported.
The 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summitwas to be held in Islamabad in 2016 but after a major terror attack on anIndian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year,India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due toprevailing circumstances.
There has been no progress since then. Oli, who met Prime Minister NarendraModi during his recent visit to India and Pakistan Prime Minister ShahidKhaqan Abbasi during his trip to Nepal recently, had discussed about theneed to restart the SAARC process.”Nepal is the current chair of SAARC.
There is misunderstanding among some members. However, it is necessary tocreate cordial environment among them,” Oli said, stressing the need forsorting out the differences between SAARC neighbours.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara, whileexpressing concern over the delay in convening the biennial summit, urgedall the member states to take the SAARC process forward actively andeffectively. SAARC Summits are usually held biennially, hosted by a memberstate in alphabetical order.
The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association.The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu