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This is an archive article published on April 25, 2005

Finally, Delhi tells Dhaka: Fix date, we are ready for Saarc

India has said it is ready to accept any suitable date for the SAARC summit in Dhaka—postponed twice already—if it was acceptable ...

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India has said it is ready to accept any suitable date for the SAARC summit in Dhaka—postponed twice already—if it was acceptable to other members of the seven-nation group.

This was conveyed by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh to his Bangladeshi counterpart Morshed Khan during a meeting between the two last night on the sidelines of the Asian-African summit here.

The issue of rescheduling the summit was raised by Morshed Khan with India conveying that it would agree to any date acceptable to all members, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said today.

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The official indication of India’s willingness to attend the summit comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meeting Nepal King Gyanendra yesterday.

India had earlier refused to attend the summit in February citing ‘‘disturbing developments in the region’’—a reference to the royal takeover in Nepal. This led to the second postponement of the summit, which had already been put off from its January schedule due to the tsunami disaster.

Pakistan is the current chairman of SAARC but the post will go to Bangladesh once it hosts the summit. Besides India and Bangladesh, other members of the grouping are Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives.

—PTI

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