17th SAARC summit begins at Maldives today
November 10, 2011 at 7:40 am · Close Watch
The 17th South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit will begin at Addu city in Maldives today(10). The summit, themed ‘Building Bridges’ is expected to review the progress in the implementation of the decisions taken in earlier Summits.
Five regional agreements concerning Charter of Democracy, Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, Seed Bank, Multilateral Recognition of Conformity Assessment and Implementation of Regional Standards will be signed during the Summit.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to address the Summit today(10).
This is the third occasion that Maldives will host the SAARC summit, the previous two being held in 1990 and 1997.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was created in 1985 in Dhaka with seven members, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan joined the regional cooperation in 2007.
(JNW)