Kathmandu, October 19:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) will be preparing for participating in the upcoming 13th Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to be held in Dhaka through 12-13 November, though the Foreign Minister is leaving on a nine-days’ visit to Russia and Pakistan tomorrow.

“We believe that the SAARC Summit will take place on scheduled dates, and necessary preparation is underway,” said minister Ramesh Nath Pandey, who had a brief meeting with the Indian Minister for External Affairs, K Natwar Singh at Tribhuvan International Airport recently when the later was on his way to Bhutan.

According to minister Pandey, his Indian counterpart was firm that the twice postponed summit would be held this time. Referring to a telephonic conversation between the foreign ministers of Bangladesh and India, Singh is said to have told Pandey that Bangladesh, the host country was preparing for the summit.

Pandey said the meeting of the SAARC Foreign Ministers, which was held on the sidelines of 60th UN General Assembly in New York, had directed SAARC Foreign Secretaries to do the homework and update agenda to be discussed in the meeting of the council of ministers comprising SAARC Foreign Ministers prior to the Summit.

However, the government is yet to decide the delegation to participate the Summit. The meeting of the programming committee is scheduled to be held on November 8, the standing committee of SAARC Foreign Secretaries will meet on November 9-10, and the Foreign Ministers are meeting on November 10-11.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister during his visit to the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 23 to 31 October, is scheduled to hold a meeting the Sergey V Lavrov and Khursid M Kasuri, the Russian and Pakistani foreign ministers respectively. Pandey said he will discuss with both the foreign ministers about the cooperation in new areas with those countries.

About King Gyanendra’s possible visit to China in the near future, he only said that the King has received invitation from countries including China.