KATHMANDU, APR 21 -
The Cabinet on Wednesday endorsed the agendas and the composition of the delegation for the upcoming 16th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit to be held in Thimpu, Bhutan, from April 28.

As official level talks will kick off on April 24, Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai, who is leading the Nepali delegation to the meeting, is flying to Thimpu on Thursday.

According to Minister for Information and Communications,  Shanker Pokhrel, 24 members have been included in the official delegation of Nepal led by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The prime minister, his wife Gayatri Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala,  National Planning Commission member Dinesh Devkota, advisors to the prime minister and foreign minister,  Chief of Protocol, two security personnel of the prime minister, foreign ministry officials and journalists are in the delegation which will leave for Thimpu on April 27.

The Cabinet has endorsed three agreements — SAARC Agreement on Disaster Response Mechanism, SAARC Convention on Cooperation on Environment and Climate Change and Agreement on Trade in Services —  to be forwarded to all member states and which will be the outcome of the Thimpu summit.

Bhutan has completed preparations to host the summit, which will mark the 25th year of establishment of the regional body.

Climate change will be a burning issue in the Summit that has this year’s theme as ‘Towards a green and happy South Asia’.

A regional mechanism is expected to be proposed by Nepal to counter the impact of climate change.

The summit formally kicks off on April 28 followed by a meeting of the 38th session of the Programming Committee on April 29. Eight member nations will be joined by observers from China, Japan, the European Union, Republic of Korea, the US, Australia, Mauritius and Iran.

Other issues are energy and food crises and effective implementation of the SAARC Development Fund.

Regional issues like terrorism, extremism, early implementation of South Asian Free Trade Agreement and expansion of tourism across the region will also figure in the meet.

Another key agenda will be the appointment of a SAARC Development Fund secretary in the secretariat, which will be established in Thimpu.

Posted on: 2010-04-22 08:18

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.

* Full Name

* Address

* Email Address

* Comment
[Some of the HTML tags you can use : <b>, <i>, <a>]

* Captcha

Get another CAPTCHA code