Siddique Islam (National News Service), Dhaka, Wednesday, April 27: Dhaka wants to hold the twice-postponed summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in December as it would be busy addressing domestic compulsions in the next few months.
"We're working to find a suitable time for us and other member states ... but (in) my personal opinion December is the suitable time," the private UNB agency quoted Foreign Ministry Adviser Reaz Rahman as saying on late Monday.
Rahman said Prime Minister Khaleeda Zia would visit Vietnam next month and the government would be busy with the budget and the next session of Parliament during May and June. July, August is rainy season and UN General Assembly session is in September while holy month of Ramadan will begin in October.
Sources in the foreign ministry said that no date or month has been fixed or finalised so far and Pakistan as Chairman of SAARC is continuing talks with member states to find a suitable date.
Earlier India said that the SAARC Summit is likely to be convened in the last week of May or first week of June and that the Government had conveyed to Bangladesh that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can attend the summit after Parliament session ends on May 13.
External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, who had met his Bangladeshi counterpart Morshed Khan on Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Africa Summit, had said India was ready to accept any suitable date for the summit if it was acceptable to other members of the SAARC. (End/si)
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