Nepal 'eager', 'in hurry' to hand over SAARC chairmanship: FM Pradeep Gyawali

Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Friday said that his country is not only ready but "eager and in hurry" to hand over the chairmanship of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

"Nepal is not only ready but eager and in hurry, to hand over the chairmanship of SAARC because we are carrying the baggage since more than 4 years, we were supposed to hand over in 2016," he said at a press conference here.

SAARC is a regional intergovernmental organisation and geopolitical union of states in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, and the Maldives.

The 18th SAARC summit was the last annual meeting attended by India that took place in Kathmandu in 2014.

Pakistan was to host the next summit in 2016, but, the summit was cancelled after India decided against participating in it following the terror attack at a military camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir.

Other countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate and the meeting was called off following India's decision to exit the summit to step up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan.

In December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that efforts for greater collaboration among SAARC member states have been repeatedly challenged with threats and acts of terror and such an environment impedes the shared objective of realising the regional body's full potential.

"SAARC has made progress, but more needs to be done. Our efforts for greater collaboration have repeatedly been challenged with threats and acts of terrorism. Such an environment impedes our shared objective of realising the full potential of SAARC," Prime Minister Modi had said in a letter addressed to the SAARC Secretariat.