Saarc Countries

Nepal on Sunday said it was making efforts to activate the eight-member regional grouping SAARC, which has not been very effective since 2016. Speaking at a meeting of the National Concern and Coordination Committee under the National Assembly, Secretary and spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bharat Raj Paudel said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could not be made effective due to the lack of consensus among all member states. Nepal is trying to make it active, he was quoted as saying by My Republica newspaper. "We are chairing the SAARC. However, there are places where processes have not progressed. This multilateralism and regionalism have certain constants. One of them is that when we formed SAARC, we agreed on a fundamental principle while defining the charter of SAARC. That means nothing moves forward until everyone agrees on a topic. Basically, it cannot be the same. The role of the chair of SAARC is nothing special. We are only one

The World Bank recently warned that South Asia faces its worst economic performance in 40 years due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic

Earlier this week, Pakistan stayed away from the regional trade officials' video conference on Covid-19 because as per the neighboiring country, it should have been managed by Saarc secretariat

Modi took to Twitter to thank leaders of the two countries for their contribution

The fund was set up on Sunday during a video conference of Saarc heads of nations

To mark the occasion, the EC has organised an international conference on the theme Strengthening Institutional Capacity'

His remarks come following India and Pakistan blaming each other over the lack of cooperation and coordination among the SAARC member states earlier this monTH

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said at his weekly briefing that Pakistan wanted to hold the summit as early as possible

The framework provides certain concessions for swap drawals in Indian rupee, the RBI said

In terms of Nepal, India is making an integrated check post at Birpur which is almost ready and will be inaugurated soon, Puri said