Nepali PM to attend SAARC summit to be held in Maldives soon

Nepali Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will be paying a 5-day official visit to the Republic of the Maldives from Nov. 8, 2011, at the invitation of the Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced. The Prime Minister will be leading an 11-member Nepalese delegation to the 17th the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit being held in the Addu City of the Maldives on Nov. 10-11. According to Saturday's National News Agency RSS, the 17th SAARC Summit will review the progress in the implementation of the decisions taken in earlier summits. Poverty alleviation, economic cooperation, SAARC Development Fund, food security, connectivity, energy and climate change are some of the major issues for deliberation during the summit. Four regional agreements concerning Rapid Response to Natural Disasters, Seed Bank, Multilateral Recognition of Conformity Assessment and Implementation of Regional Standards are likely to be signed during the summit.