Nepal urges South Asia to create conducive condition to hold SAARC summit amid boycott

Nepal, the current chair of the SAARC, is apparently still upbeat about the Islamabad meeting as it has urged that a “conducive environment” be created in the region so that the 19th summit can take place.

The Nepalese foreign ministry made the call in a statement on Wednesday night acknowledging it has received diplomatic notes of four countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India – conveying their “inability” to attend the summit in November.

Those countries stated that “current regional environment is not conducive to the successful holding of the Summit”, Nepal said.

“We have taken this development seriously.”

“As the current chair of SAARC, the government of Nepal strongly urges that a conducive environment be created soon to ensure the participation of all member states in the 19th SAARC summit in line with the spirit of the SAARC Charter,” read the statement.

Kathmandu's call came despite the fact that the summit as per SAARC rules could be postponed even if one member state refuses to join it.

Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz also said SAARC Summit could be postponed if India refused to attend amid ongoing diplomatic row between the two countries following the terror attack on an Indian army base in Kahsmir in which 18 Indian soldiers had been killed.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs earlier in its statement said: “Increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region and growing interference in the internal affairs of member states by one country have created an environment that is not conducive to the successful holding of the 19th SAARC Summit in Islamabad”.

Dhaka has cited the “constant interference” in the internal affairs of Bangladesh by “one country” being the trigger for the boycott, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam earlier said.

“This has created an environment which is not conducive to the hosting of the summit,” he told reporters.

That ‘one country’ is clearly Pakistan as Islamabad interfered in Bangladesh’s trials of those who had committed crimes against humanity in the 1971 War of Independence by issuing statements and summoning Dhaka’s envoy to its foreign office.