BD \\\'upbeat\\\' about possible SAARC deals

Bangladesh is hoping to get the regional connectivity deals signed in the forthcoming SAARC Summit despite a foreign secretary-level meeting failing to agree on them. Now those would be discussed in the foreign ministers’ level meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said on Monday. ‘I can only tell you we are optimistic,’ Shahidul Haque told the reporters after attending the secretary level standing committee meeting at a hotel in Kathmandu. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka at 3:00pm today (Tuesday) for Kathmandu to attend the SARC Summit which begins in the Nepalese capital on Wednesday. Sources at the 2-day foreign secretary level standing committee meeting said that Bangladesh was prepared to sign those road, railway and energy connectivity deals. But it came to know that some other countries could not prepare themselves for signing the road, railway and energy connectivity deals. Foreign secretaries from all SAARC members – Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives – led their respective delegations at the meeting. Themed on ‘Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity’, the heads of state and government of the eight countries will join the final summit in Kathmandu on Nov 26-27, according to a news agency.