NEW DELHI, April 24: India has said it is prepared to attend an Asian summit it bowed out of in February due to security concerns and other issues, a television station reported on Sunday. NTDV television channel said Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh told his Bangladeshi counterpart on the sidelines of an Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta that India was ready to attend the summit in Bangladesh, but no details were available.
The 13th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) was called off after India’s minister pulled out, citing a political crisis in Nepal and security concerns in Bangladesh.
Held hostage by longstanding enmity between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute, the Saarc has made little progress to boost economic growth in the region, where many live in abject poverty.
The Dhaka summit was originally scheduled for Jan. 9-11 but it was postponed to February after the Dec 26 tsunami disaster devastated coastal communities of several member countries.
The issue of rescheduling the Saarc Summit was raised by Morshed Khan and Indian External Affairs Minister expressed willingness to any date acceptable to all members, EAM spokesman said today.
Pakistan is the current Chairman of South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) and Bangladesh will have the chairmanship after it hosts the summit.—Agencies
