Proposed by Pak, SAARC nations to hold video conference

A video conference of SAARC nations, proposed by Pakistan, will be held on Thursday to discuss ways to promote deeper cooperation among the member countries to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Foreign Office (FO) said that Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan for Health Zafar Mirza will lead the Pakistan delegation.

Besides ministers and senior officials, the meeting will be attended by Secretary General SAARC Esala Ruwan Weerakon.

In addition to exchanging updates on the status of national containment efforts, the conference will deliberate on ways to promote deeper cooperation to combat the crisis, including inter alia through strengthening disease surveillance, sharing best practices, building national capacities, coordinating research efforts and promoting regional and international linkages, the FO said.

High population densities and fragile health systems render South Asia, which is home to one-fifth of humanity, vulnerable to the pandemic, it said.

Closer coordination among regional countries through utilization of all available institutional mechanisms, including the SAARC platform, remains important for combating the disease, it said.

The meeting comes over a month after India took the lead with Prime Minister Narendra Modi bringing the SAARC leaders together through a video-conference amid rising coronavirus cases in the populous region.

The SAARC nations vowed to jointly combat the coronavirus as Prime Minister Modi proposed an emergency fund with an initial offer of USD 10 million from India and asserted that the region can best respond to the pandemic by coming together, and not growing apart.