KATHMANDU: The seven nation SAARC standing committee comprising of foreign secretaries of the South Asian region began a three-day meet in the Capital Sunday. The meeting considered the report of the programme committee submitted by Joint Secretary of the Nepali Foreign Ministry Gyan Chand Acharya after a two-day meet that ended Saturday.
The standing committee met only in the late afternoon after heavy fog delayed the arrival of Indian Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer from New Delhi Sunday. The standing committee will discuss the budget of the headquarters of the organization based in Kathmandu as well as an integrated programme of action for the coming year 2002.
The standing committee will review the reports of seven technical committees and five regional centres already discussed by the programming committee.
Foreign Ministers of the region will discuss the recommendations of the foreign secretaries from Wednesday. All regional leaders, including Indian and Pakistani, have confirmed their participation in the summit to be hosted by Nepal from January 4 to 6.
The foreign secretaries are also discussing entry of South Asian nations to the WTO and the delayed launch of the SAFTA, conference sources said. Outgoing SAARC Secretary General Nihal Rodrigej from Sri Lanka presented a report on the SAARC headquarters.