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Pakistan to host SAARC summit
Shirish Pradhan

Kathmandu, July 10
The deferred SAARC summit will now be held in Islamabad from January 4. The summit may bring Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee face to face with the Pakistani leadership, two years after President Pervez Musharraf’s dramatic handshake with him here during the last summit.

All seven member countries endorsed the Pakistan government’s proposal to host the SAARC summit from January 4-6 next year, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal told reporters after a SAARC Standing Committee meeting where the decision was taken.

Indicating that Mr Vajpayee might travel to Pakistan to attend the seven-member grouping meeting, he said: “This consensus would not have been reached if India was not going to participate in the summit”.

Pakistan wanted to host the summit last January but postponed it saying that India had not confirmed its participation. New Delhi had held that no decision was taken on dates for the summit.”

According to SAARC charter, participation of all heads of state and government of the member nations is must for a summit to be convened.

Even as Mr Sibal announced the agreement between SAARC members to hold the 12th summit of the regional grouping in Islamabad, he blamed Pakistan as being the “slowest in moving forward in the area of economic cooperation.”

When asked whether the Indo-Pakistan ties had hampered the SAARC process to move ahead, Mr Sibal’s answer was an emphatic “no.” — PTI

Hope for progress on trade with Pak
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 10
The Government of India tonight said the dates for the SAARC summit to be held in Islamabad early next year had been decided after mutual agreement.

A spokesman said he hoped that till the summit was held, the intervening period would be utilised for making progress in trade and economic cooperation with Pakistan.

The spokesman also hoped that progress would be made between India and Pakistan on issues like South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) and South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).