DHAKA, Nov 7: Senior officials from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives have reached Dhaka for a pre-summit programming committee’s meeting to be held on Tuesday.
The joint secretary general officials of seven South Asian nations are scheduled to review the progress of a number of Saarc issues and to finalize the schedules of meetings for the regional integrated programmes for the coming year.
The meeting will deal with at least 11 issues related to implementation of Saarc programmes and projects. The committee, after the meeting which is expected to last until Wednesday, will hand over its recommendations to the meeting of the Saarc standing committee, which comprises foreign secretaries of the seven-nation forum.
The issues of the programming committee include review of the progress in the implementation of the Regional Integrated Programme of Action (Ripa), consideration of the dates of meetings and activities under and outside the Ripa.
The meeting will also consider reports of the governing board and budgets of Saarc regional centres, and the report of the Saarc audio-visual exchange committee on its two meetings held between October and November 2004.
It will consider the report of the ninth meeting of the governing board of the South Asian Development Fund and the common format for headquarters’ agreement for the regional centres. The meeting will review the progress in activities under Saarc-Japan Special Fund.
Consideration of matters related to the secretariat, especially the budget for the secretariat in 2006 and its renovation, audit reports of the Saarc-Japan Special Fund for 2004, and the matters relating to the promotion of people-to-people contact within the Saarc will also feature in the meeting.
The programming committee’s meeting will be followed by the standing committee’s meeting, which will be scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.
The standing committee will finalize drafts of the four conventions to be signed during the summit and the Dhaka Declaration at the end of the summit.
The council of ministers’ meeting will be attended by foreign ministers of the member states. It will approve the draft agreements and the declaration, besides choosing the venue for the next Saarc summit.
Following the removal of Indian external affairs minister Natwar Singh after a UN report on the oil for food scandal in Iraq, it was unclear who will represent India in the Saarc summit as the Indian government is yet to appoint a foreign minister.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan will chair the meeting.
The two-day summit meeting of the top Saarc leaders will be inaugurated at the Bangladesh-China friendship conference centre.
