Pakistan hopes to host postponed regional summit soon

  Pakistan on Friday expressed the hope that a regional summit, which was scheduled to be held in Islamabad November but was postponed over India boycott, will be held soon.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz talked to Arjun Bahadur Thapa, the outgoing secretary general of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in Islamabad that India "impeded the SAARC process and violated the spirit of the SAARC Charter."

"Pakistan remains committed to hosting the 19th SAARC Summit at Islamabad at the earliest so that the objectives of regional cooperation under the SAARC umbrella can be pursued more vigorously," Aziz said, according to a Foreign Ministry's statement.

Thapa emphasized the need to overcome the difficulties that the organization faced and expressed the hope that the 19th SAARC Summit would be held in Islamabad as soon as possible.

India boycotted the summit amid tension after gunmen attacked an army center in the Indian-controlled Kashmir in September. The unclaimed attack killed 19 Indian soldiers.

Aziz reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to regional cooperation under the framework of SAARC for promoting welfare of the people of South Asia, improving their quality of life, economic progress, social uplift and cultural cooperation.

Aziz believed that the SAARC Secretariat could play an important role as catalyst to bring all the member states together and ensure timely and effective implementation of programs and activities that would benefit the region.

source: Xinhua