Nepalese FM in Dhaka
Nepal's Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey arrived in Dhaka yesterday on a two-day visit to hand over an invitation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the 18th SAARC Summit to be held in Kathmandu from November 26-27.
According to foreign ministry officials, Pandey will formally hand over the invitation letter to the Bangladesh prime minister at Gano Bhaban at 6:30pm today on behalf of Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala.
Officials said Pandey will brief Hasina on preparations for the summit and discuss the ways to enhance regional cooperation and collaboration on major areas of cooperation under SAARC.
They will also discuss on further enhancement of bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Nepal.
Prior to the meeting with the PM, Pandey will hold meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart AH Mahmood Ali at 4:30pm today. Earlier, Ali hosted a dinner in honour of the visiting Nepalese dignitary at state guesthouse Padma yesterday.
The Nepalese foreign minister is currently visiting the SAARC countries as a tradition of the host country to officially hand over the invitation to the heads of state or government of the member countries.
Pandey will leave Dhaka tomorrow morning for Thimphu of Bhutan to deliver the invitation letter to Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay.
On October 19, minister Pandey will visit New Delhi where he will call on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hand over the invitation.
The Nepalese FM is due to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan straight from India to extend invitations to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Earlier, Pandey handed over the letter of invitation to Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
This is the third time Nepal will host the SAARC summit after 1997 and 2002.
The 17th SAARC Summit was held at Addu City in the Maldives on November 10-11, 2011.
The 18th SAARC Summit will be preceded by SAARC programming committee meeting at the joint-secretary level on November 22 and the foreign secretary-level standing committee meeting on November 23-24.
Meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers, which is comprised of the foreign ministers, is set for November 25, while November 26-27 is the summit.
According to schedule, the summit will be inaugurated on November 26. The Summit Declarations would be announced the next day followed by a retreat for the regional leaders.
More than 300 VVIPs and VIPs from member states -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- and nine observer countries are expected to attend the summit.
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