ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: The Foreign Office on Monday formally announced that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is the current Chairman of Saarc, would be leading Pakistan’s delegation to the 13th Saarc summit conference at Dhaka from Nov 12-13.

The announcement was made by Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam at the outset of her weekly news briefing here at ministry of foreign affairs.

The summit, she said, would provide the prime minister the opportunity to meet, collectively and bilaterally, leaders from Saarc member states and to reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to further strengthening Saarc in its third decade.

The new emerging areas of cooperation including trade, energy, environment, health and tourism would be taken up at the summit besides review of activities in the fields of economic cooperation, social development and culture, the spokesperson said.

She disclosed that agreements relating to cooperation in customs matters and avoidance of double taxation would be signed by the foreign ministers in the presence of the heads of state/government. Final negotiations on the operationalization of South Asia Free Trade Agreement and Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investment would also be held by the Saarc leadership.

“Pakistan hopes that the momentum generated by the 12th Saarc summit in Islamabad would be sustained at Dhaka. “At the 13th Summit, Pakistan would like to build upon the basis laid at Islamabad with a view to strengthening the Saarc process,” spokesperson Aslam observed. She pointed out that following the agreements signed at the 12th Summit on social charter and additional protocol on Terrorism, Pakistan was the first country in Saarc to launch its ‘Plan of action on social charter’ and had ratified the additional protocol on Terrorism.

Underlining that Pakistan had always stood firm on the principles and objectives of the Saarc Charter to promote peace, stability, amity and progress in the region, Ms Aslam stated: “Pakistan will continue in its efforts to promote the prospects of regional cooperation in South Asia.”—QA