Pakistan has expressed hope that it could soon host the Saarc summit which was postponed after India boycotted it, with Prime Minister’s advisor on foreign policy Sartaj Aziz alleging that New Delhi “impeded” the grouping’s process. Aziz said this during a meeting with outgoing South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) secretary general Arjun Bahadur Thapa who was on a visit to Pakistan on Friday. Pakistan was looking forward to welcoming Saarc leaders for the 19th Summit in November but it was postponed when “India impeded the Saarc process and violated the spirit of the Saarc Charter”, foreign office (FO) said in a statement. Thapa emphasised the need to overcome the difficulties the organisation faced and expressed hope that the 19th Saarc Summit would be held in Islamabad as soon as possible. Thapa who hails from Nepal, is the 12th secretary general of Saarc.

Source: Hindustan Times January 28, 2017 09:20 UTC