SAARC summit not now

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, NOV. 13. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, said today that a meeting of the SAARC head of States, postponed since 1999, was not likely in the immediate future, but emphasised that the regional grouping should move ahead on previously agreed areas of cooperation.

``A sense of scepticism about the future of the grouping must not be permitted to spread... given the present circumstances that no meetings of the summit process are immediately envisaged,'' he said in a discreet reference to the tensions between India and Pakistan, while inaugurating an ``extra-ordinary'' meeting of SAARC senior officials here. The summit scheduled to be held in Kathmandu last year was postponed, mainly at India's insistence, after General Pervez Musharaff took power in Pakistan.

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