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Kathmandu Monday December 31, 2001 Paush 16, 2058.
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Standing Committee meet takes up
provisional agenda
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Dec 30 – The 27th Standing Committee of the
Foreign Secretaries of SAARC began on Sunday in "cordial atmosphere" with all
the seven secretaries adopting the provisional agenda. In the next two days, the committee
would deliberate on the items mentioned in the agenda.
The meeting began today, said Spokesperson for the 11th
Summit Pushkar Rajbhandari of Nepal, with the Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary G Wijesiri
handing the committee Chair to Nepal’s Acting Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya.
Among the agenda discussed today were the SAARC Secretary
General’s report on the activities of the SAARC Secretariat, and the report of the
Programming Committee that presented its report today after two days of discussions. The
Standing Committee also reviewed the functioning of the integrated programme of action,
regional mechanism and co-operation on poverty alleviation, report of the Group of Eminent
Persons (GEP), progress on the economic co-operation including SAFTA, WTO and tourism and
co-operation with other regional organisations.
Today’s meeting started late as Indian Foreign Secretary
Chokila Iyer’s flight was delayed today and was going on at the time of the media
briefing. Iyer was scheduled to have arrived yesterday but her flight was cancelled,
revealed Rajbhandari. The Joint Secretary also said that the Standing Committee was likely
to discuss tariff, debt and marketing, among others, while deliberating on SAFTA and WTO.
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