FROM KATMANDU: In the latest development, the long-awaited South Asian power cooperation agreement has been inked at the eleventh hour of the 18th SAARC Summit on Thursday afternoon.
After the concluding session, Nepali Prime Minister Sushil Koirala was talking to reporters.
“The agreement will pave the way to share the energy from one member country to another,” said Nepali premier.
A Bangladeshi diplomat told banglanews that the leaders of SAARC members agreed about the treaty in a recreational meeting held in Dwarika, an amusement center 30 kilometers far from Nepal’s capital Katmandu in the morning and signed the agreement.
Though, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina did not attend the conclusion session due to sickness. So, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque joined the meeting.
Earlier in the foreign minister and secretary level meeting, all member countries could not agreed with the power cooperation pact. So, the issue did not present in the first day of the summit.
On November 21, the 18th SAARC summit began in Katmandu with the theme ‘Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity’.
BDST: 1922 HRS, NOV 27, 2014
** ‘Kathmandu Declaration’ Thursday afternoon
