Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is leading Nepal at the conference held to chalk out a common strategy to fight impending threat of COVID-19 in the region.

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on Friday had made public his call for all SAARC member states to join this initiative aimed at collectively discussing and battling the gradual spread of the pandemic in the region.

In a move of solidarity, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka quickly agreed to further discussions in the forum.

This is the first formal engagement between top-leaders of the SAARC since the Kathmandu-summit in 2014. India-Pakistan diplomatic tensions had powered a six-year hiatus to the utilisation of the regional forum.