Kathmandu, February 21:

Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav is leaving for Colombo on February 25 leading the Nepali delegation to the 31st session of SAARC Council of Ministers scheduled to be held in the Sri Lankan capital on February 27-28.

The meeting will be preceded by the 36th Standing Committee Meeting and 35th Programming Committee Meeting on February 23-25 and 25-26 respectively. Foreign secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya and Dhananjay Jha, in-charge, South Asia and SAARC division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will lead Nepali delegation in the standing committee meeting and programming committee meeting respectively.

The meetings will review the progress of implementation of the decisions taken and matters considered at the 15th SAARC Summit and the 13th Session of the Council of Minister held in Colombo last year. These forums had taken important decisions and considered important issues, including the establishment of SAARC Development Fund, adaptation and mitigation of the effects of climate change and consideration of prioritised regional projects in multimodal transport.

Minister Yadav will hold bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of SAARC countries at the sidelines of the meeting. He will return Kathmandu on March 1.