Saarc Countries

There should be a revival of the spirit of SAARC, Muhammad Yunus, the head of Bangladesh's interim government has said, underlining that the eight-member bloc can solve many of the region's problems. In an interview with PTI at his official residence in Dhaka, Chief Adviser Yunus said that although the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was formed with a great cause, it now exists only on paper and is not functioning. The regional grouping comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Yunus mentioned that he would try to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session scheduled to be held later this month. He also mentioned that he will try to get the heads of state of SAARC nations together for a photo op. Obviously, we will try to meet (Prime Minister Narendra Modi). I will try if all the heads of state of SAARC nations come together and take a photo. SAARC was formed for

Nearly 240 antiquities have been brought back to India from various countries in the last nine years and 72 more of such artefacts are in the process of being repatriated, the government said on Monday. The government of India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is committed to bringing back our antiquities and artefacts from across the world, it said. As on April 24, 251 invaluable antiquities of Indian origin have been retrieved back from different countries, of which 238 have been brought back since 2014, according to data shared by the Press Information Bureau in a statement titled 'Rejuvenating India's Cultural and Spiritual Heritage'. Further, nearly 72 antiquities are in the process of being repatriated from various countries, it said. The PIB also tweeted about this and the post was retweeted by Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy. It shared a poster with data on the antiquities that have been repatriated, according to which 13 were retrieved between 19

Nepal on Sunday said it was making efforts to activate the eight-member regional grouping SAARC, which has not been very effective since 2016. Speaking at a meeting of the National Concern and Coordination Committee under the National Assembly, Secretary and spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bharat Raj Paudel said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) could not be made effective due to the lack of consensus among all member states. Nepal is trying to make it active, he was quoted as saying by My Republica newspaper. "We are chairing the SAARC. However, there are places where processes have not progressed. This multilateralism and regionalism have certain constants. One of them is that when we formed SAARC, we agreed on a fundamental principle while defining the charter of SAARC. That means nothing moves forward until everyone agrees on a topic. Basically, it cannot be the same. The role of the chair of SAARC is nothing special. We are only one

The World Bank recently warned that South Asia faces its worst economic performance in 40 years due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic

Earlier this week, Pakistan stayed away from the regional trade officials' video conference on Covid-19 because as per the neighboiring country, it should have been managed by Saarc secretariat

Modi took to Twitter to thank leaders of the two countries for their contribution

The fund was set up on Sunday during a video conference of Saarc heads of nations

To mark the occasion, the EC has organised an international conference on the theme Strengthening Institutional Capacity'

His remarks come following India and Pakistan blaming each other over the lack of cooperation and coordination among the SAARC member states earlier this monTH

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said at his weekly briefing that Pakistan wanted to hold the summit as early as possible

The framework provides certain concessions for swap drawals in Indian rupee, the RBI said

In terms of Nepal, India is making an integrated check post at Birpur which is almost ready and will be inaugurated soon, Puri said