By IANS,
New Delhi : In a sign of the South Asian regional bloc’s growing clout, Australia and Myanmar will join the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation as observers at the 16th SAARC summit in Bhutan next week.
With the participation of Australia and Myanmar at the April 28-29 summit in Bhutan certain, the total number of observers at the SAARC has now reached nine.
China, Iran, European Union, Japan, South Korea, the US and Mauritius already have observer status in the SAARC.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will join other leaders of South Asian countries for the 16th SAARC summit in Thimphu April 28, which will focus on climate change as its key theme.
The summit is expected to culminate in a joint declaration entitled “Towards a Green and Happy South Asia” and will see the signing of two pacts on environment and trade in services.
Regional powers have in the past few years shown an increasing interest in SAARC, which was once written off as another talk shop.
Ahead of the Thimphu summit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu has described SAARC as “the most important regional cooperation organisation” in South Asia and stressed that there has been constant progress in its relationship with the grouping.
“As the most important regional cooperation organisation in South Asia, SAARC has played an active role in promoting cooperation among member states in advancing social, economic development of the region,” Jiang said.
The Chinese delegation at the SAARC summit would be represented by Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya, she said.