Maldives hosts the 17th annual SAARC summit

SAARC_summit_17The 17th annual SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit is scheduled to begin today in the Maldives. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs minister S.M. Krishna are heading towards Maldives today to attend the summit.

India’s main agenda for the summit would be to establish peace and maintain friendly relations with its neighboring state, Pakistan. The relation between Delhi and Islamabad had strained after the 26/11 attacks. India and Pakistan will also have discussions on how to take forward its economic relations for mutual development.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna is accompanying Manmohan Singh in the said conference to address hot issues with respect to regional cooperation and trade with his fellow counterparts from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Maldives.

Maldives is hosting the SAARC Summit for the third time and the theme of the 17th annual SAARC Summit would be Building Bridges, aiming at improving the infrastructure of connectivity and trade and better people-to-people contact.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC was created in 1985 in Dhaka with seven members, as an expression of the region’s collective decision to evolve a regional cooperative framework.

Maldives hosts the 17th annual SAARC summit

Report by Anupama