Pajhwok Report

KABUL, July 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government of Bangladesh, which is the current chair of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), has extended an invitation to Afghanistan to attend the forthcoming meetings of the associations' standing committee and council of ministers in Dhaka next week.

The SAARC members have recently given its nod to allow Afghanistan membership in the seven-member organisation. "The government of Bangladesh, as the current chair of SAARC, has invited Afghanistan to attend the meetings as special guest to familiarise itself with the process," said a reputed Pakistani daily quoting diplomatic sources.

Afghanistan would not be participating in the deliberations but would attend the meetings as observer, the sources were quoted as saying.

The last SAARC summit in Dhaka had approved Afghanistans request for the membership of the regional grouping, and had directed the standing committee to evolve a mechanism to induct it as a new member.

The meeting of the standing committee, comprising foreign secretaries of the seven-member alliance, is scheduled for July 31. It will be followed by the council meeting on August 1 and 2, said the report.

They are routine half-yearly review meetings but this time around they assume special significance as modalities of Afghanistan membership and criteria for granting observer status to China and Japan will be finalised. Besides, the requests by the United States and South Korea for the observer status in the association will also be considered.

Daud Khan