Nepal to Host SAARC Summit in November

The 18th SAARC summit will be held in November, Nepal's foreign ministry said.

A cabinet meeting on 7 August decided Nepal would host the summit in November, said assistant spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry, Bharat Raj Regmi.

The two-day summit will be inaugurated on November 26.

Nepal will chair the summit of the regional grouping.

The dates have been circulated by the SAARC Secretariat based in Kathmandu to other member countries.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the eight members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Nepal has formed a high-level preparatory committee and several other panels to make the summit a success, Regmi said.

Nepal is hosting the SAARC Summit after an interval of 12 years. The country previously hosted the summit in 2002, when then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf met in Kathmandu.

The SAARC preparatory committee meeting consisting of joint secretaries will take place on November 22 and the foreign secretary level standing committee will meet from November 23-24.

The SAARC council of ministers will meet on November 25.