The eighteenth summit of 'South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation' (SAARC) was held in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

, the capital of

Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China ...

during 26–27 November 2014. The theme of the summit was ''Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity'', focused on enhancing connectivity between the member states for easier transit-transport across the region.

Sushil Koirala Sushil Prasad Koirala (; 12 August 1931 – 9 February 2016) was a Nepalese politician and the Prime Minister of Nepal from 11 February 2014 to 10 October 2015. He was also President of the Nepali Congress from 2010 to 2016, having earlier ser ...

, the then Nepalese prime minister, was the main host of the event which took place in Rastriya Sabha Griha The summit took place after an interval of three years as the previous summit was held in 2011 in

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Background

On 26 May 2014,

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he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

of all SAARC nations attended the Swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi in New Delhi and the following day they have held high level discussion with the newly appointed Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

which was dubbed as the mini SAARC summit in the media. There it was agreed to revitalize the SAARC initiative and a summit was agreed upon in Nepal at the earliest. Started on November 26, the two-day SAARC Summit was the 18th session of the multilateral organisation. times of India

Participants

The following

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being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

heads of government In the executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...

of the eight member countries participated in the summit in

Agenda

Foreign Ministers of the eight member states signed an agreement on energy cooperation namely 'SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity)' in the presence of their heads of state and government during the concluding ceremony of the 18th SAARC Summit on 27 November. Although Pakistan stalled, citing insufficient internal preparations, signing of two other agreements on Vehicular Traffic and Railways respectively. Although Nepalese Prime Minister

, current SAARC Chair, expressed his hope that the 'Regulation of Passenger and Cargo Vehicular Traffic amongst SAARC Member States', and 'SAARC Regional Agreement on Railways' would be signed later after the Transport Ministers of these countries reviewed them. It was also decided that Pakistan will host the next summit in 2016. The India-Pakistan stand-off on the first day threatened to jeopardize the entire summit process as Pakistan seemed to be in the mood to block every Indian led proposal. But the next day things have changed when the two prime ministers met privately at the retreat session which led to Pakistan agreeing one out of three proposed agreements and they also met and shook hands publicly during the closing ceremony and this 'transient peace' in the relation was believed to brokered by the Nepalese side as a face-saving measure for the Kathmandu summit. China, which holds an observer status in the group, was represented by Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin seen actively promoting a more active role for itself in the region including infrastructure funding through its proposed 'Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank' (AIIB) and extending its ambitious

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project to South Asian nations. Pakistan, China's all weather friend, also vouched for a more participatory role for the observer nations in the summit process, indirectly advocating for a more Chinese involvement. Although no such proposal was accepted because of India's reservation.

Aftermath

With the ongoing cold relationships between India and Pakistan, the formal handshake between the prime ministers from both the countries caught a lot of attention and was applauded by everyone in the Summit Hall. In this way the 18th SAARC summit was over

Gallery of participating leaders

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Ashraf Ghani Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan former politician and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was 2021 Taliban offensive, overthrown by the Ta ...

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Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina (''née'' Wazed; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Her ...

Prime Minister of Bangladesh The prime minister of Bangladesh (, : Bāṅlādēśēr Prôdhānmôntrī), officially prime minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh (, : Gôṇôprôjātôntrī Bāṅlādēśēr Prôdhānmôntrī), is the head of government of the Ba ...

File:Tshering Tobgay.jpg,

Tshering Tobgay Tshering Tobgay (; born 19 September 1965) is a Bhutanese politician who is the seventh List of Prime Ministers of Bhutan, prime minister of Bhutan since 2024 and also served in office from 2013 to 2018. Tobgay is the leader of the People's Democr ...

Prime Minister of Bhutan File:PM Modi 2015.jpg,

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File:Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in January 2014.jpg, Abdulla Yameen

President of the Maldives The president of the Republic of Maldives () is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Maldives and the commander-in-chief of the Maldives National Defence Force. The current president is Mohamed Muizzu, who was elect ...

File:Sushil Koirala.jpg,

Prime Minister of Nepal The prime minister of Nepal (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of Nepal. The prime minister leads the Council of Ministers of Nepal, Council of Ministers and holds the chief executive authority in the country. They must maintain ...

File:PrimeMinisterNawazSharif.jpg,

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Cabinet of Pakistan, cabinet, desp ...

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Maithripala Sirisena Maithripala Yapa Sirisena (; ; born 3 September 1951) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the seventh president of Sri Lanka from 9 January 2015 to 18 November 2019. Sirisena is Sri Lanka's first president from the North Central Province, S ...

President of Sri Lanka The president of Sri Lanka ( ''Śrī Laṅkā Janādhipati''; ''Ilaṇkai janātipati'') is the head of state and head of government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The president is the chief executive of the union governm ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:SAARC summit, 18 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summits 2014 in international relations 2014 in Nepal Kathmandu 21st century in Kathmandu 21st-century diplomatic conferences 2014 conferences History of Nepal (2008–present) Diplomatic conferences in Nepal