New Delhi, Nov 27:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit which is to be held in Islamabad, reported Dawn quoting Pakistan Foreign Office. Addressing a conference in Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal recalled that their Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first address had said that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two. SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association. The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by PM Modi. The 2016 SAARC Summit was to be held in Islamabad. However, after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances” and stepped up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan. Nineteen Indian soldiers died in the attack.The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet. Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the initiative.
