SAARC Summit to be held in Islamabad from Nov 9-10

From Sajjad Hussain Islamabad, Aug 26 (PTI) The 19th SAARC Summit will be heldin Islamabad on November 9 and 10, Pakistan announced today. "The Prime Minister of Pakistan (Nawaz Sharif) has invitedthe leaders of SAARC Member States to grace the Summit withtheir presence" and is looking forward to welcoming them inIslamabad, the Foreign Office here said in a statement. However, it remains unclear whether Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will travel to Pakistan for the summit given thestrain in bilateral ties over the issue of cross borderterrorism. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had visited Pakistan earlierthis month for the SAARC Home Ministers’ meeting during whichthe chill in ties was evident while Finance Minister ArunJaitley skipped the ongoing SAARC Finance Ministers’ meetingand instead sent Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das torepresent India at the meet. Pakistan Foreign Office said that nine observers of SAARChave also been invited to attend the summit. The preparations for successfully hosting the summit inIslamabad are being made by Pakistan, the statement said. In order to give impetus to the process of preparations,Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry today inaugurated aSAARC Summit Cell at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The SAARC Summit Cell is headed by Ambassador Amjad Sial,who is a senior diplomat and Pakistan’s nominee for the nextSAARC Secretary General. The SAARC Summit Cell will closely work with allstakeholders and concerned authorities in Pakistan. It willalso liaise with the member states, SAARC observers and theSAARC secretariat for organisation of the summit, thestatement said. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) is comprised of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. PTI SH ASKASK