SAARC Programming Committee meet begins in Pokhara today

Pokhara: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will leave for Nepal on Wednesday to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ministerial meet.

The meeting is scheduled between March 14 – 17.

Before the Ministerial meeting, a session of the Programming Committee of SAARC will be held in Pokhara.

The standing committee of the SAARC, which is a Foreign Secretaries-level Forum, will be held on 16th of this month.

These meetings will prepare the ground for the session of Council of Ministers. It will be attended by Foreign Ministers of SAARC countries.

Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the meetings are part of regular interactions within the SAARC framework.

He added the meetings are expected to give an opportunity for a comprehensive review of decisions taken across all SAARC forums over the past one-and-a-half years, especially India initiated proposals like SAARC Satellite.

Swarup said that India’s focus would be not only to take stock of the decisions but also to work out the way forward on priority issues. (ANI)