The 14th Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be held in New Delhi on April 3 and 4, 2007 in the Indian capital, officials said after a meeting of the SAARC Foreign Ministers in Dhaka on Thursday.

At the 14th summit, India will become the chairman of the regional grouping for a year taking over from Bangladesh. The last SAARC Summit was held in Dhaka in November last year, Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper reported.

In the 14th Summit, Afghanistan will be formally included as the eighth member of the South Asian grouping.

Afghanistan was the only country in South Asia which was out of the SAARC. Bangladesh Foreign Minister said, “Afghanistan’s inclusion is a homecoming for the country.”

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta attended the SAARC Foreign Ministers’ talks, marking the first participation of the country in the high-level meeting of the grouping.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister K P Sharma Oli led the Nepali delegation to Dhaka meeting.

The seven-member regional body was set up in 1985 with a view to promote regional cooperation. Analysts, however, say the body couldn’t make much progress over the last two decades mainly due to animosity between India and Pakistan—two prominent members of the grouping.