Summit adjourned till Thursday sans signing deals

The 18th Saarc Summit has been adjourned till Thursday without any deals being signed. There was a slot for singing agreements at 12:35pm, but the chair of the summit Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala adjourned the 2-day meet until Thursday. It became clear quite early that 2 of the 3 deals related to road, railway and energy cooperation would not be signed. But there had been talks at the last moment to get at least the energy cooperation deal through, as it was essential for the electricity-starved region. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech also pitched for those agreements. But it was known that Pakistan blocked them saying they were not ready ‘internally’. Leaders of the 8 member states in their speeches have stressed Saarc’s role for the South Asia’s development. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged all to set aside differences and work for the progress of the region’s people, nearly 40 per cent of them being poor. The last day, Thursday, leaders will spend the morning in retreat at the Dwarika’s Resort, Dhulikhel, 30 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu. They will come back in the afternoon at the summit venue for the closing when they will adopt a joint ‘Kathmandu declaration’ and set the dates and place of the next summit, according to a news agency.