Sri Lanka Pulls Out From SAARC Summit

Sri Lanka has also backed out of the 19th SAARC summit which was already on the verge of cancellation. Sri Lankan representatives announced their decision on Friday citing the reason that the current conditions in Pakistan are not good for conducting the SAARC summit in Islamabad.

Sri Lanka’s announcement came a couple of days after Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan refused to attend the summit.

India took the first stand by refusing to attend the summit after which, other nations has also followed suit, taking the tally of boycotting nation to Five out of Eight members of the SAARC group.

India’s decision came after the attack on the Indian army base at Uri which has killed 20 Indian soldiers till now, two of them being declared dead recently while fighting from their injuries in a Hospital.

Sri Lanka has maintained good relations with both India and Pakistan and they have also abstained from commenting on either of the nations. However, Sri Lanka has advised Pakistan to deal with terrorism in a decisive manner to maintain peace among the South Asian Nations.

Maldives is the only Nation remaining which has not commented on this issue till now. Nepal being the Chair cannot refuse to attend the summit which only leaves Pakistan. Now, how can they refuse to attend a meeting that they are hosting?

Nepal, the current Chair of the SAARC nations is left with no other choice but to formally cancel the 19th SAARC summit after Sri Lanka’s refusal.

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1 October 2016
Rohan Jaitly