Neighbourhood troubles may cancel SAARC meet this year

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit is unlikely to take place this year.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit is unlikely to take place this year.

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The internal political developments in Maldives and Nepal have delayed the processes, which leads to the summit. Maldives is the current chair of the SAARC and the next summit was to take place in Nepal.

There have been instances in the past when there were gaps of 18 months between the two summits.

The first female SAARC secretary general Dhiyana Saeed from Maldives resigned in January this year, following political upheaval in her country. It took a while before seasoned Maldives diplomat, Ahmed Saleem, was named as the secretary general of the grouping. Nepal, the host for the summit is also undergoing major political churning.

The ministerial meet to review the progress of the SAARC has also been delayed. Various meetings of the SAARC that are stalled now set to resume in September.

Official say that the though the internal political process in some member countries are delaying the process, it should be in place by September.

The ministerial meet between the two summits review the progress made in the last summit and the ministers report the progress made to their leaders.