ISLAMABAD, 10 November 2005 — Pakistan yesterday said it would propose the entry of Afghanistan into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) at a two-day summit that will be held in Dhaka at the weekend.
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told reporters he had received a letter from his Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah, requesting that his country be admitted to SAARC.
“We strongly support Afghanistan’s admission in the SAARC fold,” said Kasuri in Karachi. “It would be a matter of privilege and pleasure for me, in my capacity as the chairman of SAARC Council of Ministers, to propose admitting Afghanistan as a full-fledged member of the organization.”
Officials say combating terrorism, poverty alleviation and cooperation in the aftermath of natural calamities will be the main agenda of the Dhaka summit.
The summit has been postponed twice this year — first in January following the Indian Ocean tsunami, and again in February after India declined to attend, citing security fears in Dhaka.
Kasuri said he expected none of the SAARC members to oppose Afghanistan’s entry.
Other countries, including China and Japan, are interested in being associated with the organization as either observers or dialogue partners, said Kasuri. “We await further contacts with these countries to work out the modalities of their association.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh are expected to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit.
