Tag: SAARC

India participated in The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC)health ministers conferencehosted by Pakistan to promote great regional cooperation to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. SAARC countries agreed to enhance cooperationin the health sector, especially in the context of efforts to combat the virus at the regional level. Key Points The meeting comes over a month after India took the lead with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring the SAARC leaders together through a video-conference. India has developed an electronic platform for all SAARC countries to exchange information on response mechanisms to deal with the pandemic. The platform will be launched for exchange of specialized information and tools on COVID-19 among designated health professionals in the region. The meeting was chaired by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza and attended by SAARC Secretary-General-EsalaRuwan Weerakoon. About SAARC: HeadquartersKathmandu, Nepal Member States Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)Development Fund (SDF) has allocated USD 5 million (about Rs 38 crore) for COVID-19 projects in 8 member countries, in an effort to mitigate the financial losses and severe socio-economic impact of the pandemic.

Nepal will host an informal summit of the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on the sidelines of the coming Sagarmatha Sambaad. To revive the forum, which has been unable to meet formally during the last four years because of the negative India-Pakistan relations. The SAARC summit could not be held in Islamabad in 2016 after India faced terror strikes blamed on elements in Pakistan. Kathmandu had invited all SAARC heads of government for Sagarmatha Sambaad, the first edition of a multi-stakeholder dialogue, to be held from April 2 to 4 and argued that an alternative to the formal summit model could be explored.