Nepal: A meeting of the top leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to be held on Saturday in New York was reportedly cancelled. Sources on Tuesday stated that Pakistan wanted the Taliban to represent Afghanistan, which was denied by India and several other nations. The proposal by the Imran Khan-led country was let down as a fact that Taliban regimes haven’t yet been recognized by the governments across the country and that the latter Afghan leaders didn’t approach the UN for credentials. ‘Lack of concurrence’ was cited as the reason to call off the meet.
Nepal which was the host of the meet, wrote to the SAARC Secretary stating “due to lack of concurrence from all member states as of today, the informed meeting of SAARC council of ministers proposed to b held in person on September 25 on the sidelines of the 76th UN Gen Assembly Session will not take place.”
SAARC is a regional inter-government organization of eight countries of South Asia namely- Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan is the youngest member of SAARC, which joined in 2007. The SAARC Secretariat was set up in Kathmandu on January 17, 1987.