SHAH NIDHI S.

SAARC

SAARC Established on 8th December 1985 dedicated to economic, technological, social and cultural development. The 11 stated areas of cooperation are agriculture; education, culture, and sports; health, population, and child welfare; the environment and meteorology; rural development ; tourism; transport; science and technology; communications. Headquarters - Kathmandu, Nepal

Promoting the welfare of the people of South Asia and to improve their quality of life. Accelerating economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to provide all individuals the opportunity to live in dignity and to realize their full potential. Promoting and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia.

Contributing to mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another's problems. Promoting active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields. Strengthening cooperation with other developing countries; Strengthening cooperation among themselves in international forums on matters of common interest .

Abul Ahsan January 16, 1987 to 15 October 1989 Kant Kishore Bhargava October 17, 1989 to December 31, 1991 Ibrahim Hussain Zaki January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1993 Yadav Kant Silwal January 1, 1994 to December 31, 1995 Naeem U. Hasan January 1, 1996 to December 31, 1998 Nihal Rodrigo January 1, 1999 to January 10, 2002 Q.A.M.A. Rahim January 11, 2002 to February 28, 2005 Sheel Kant Sharma March 1, 2008 to February 28, 2011 Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed March 1, 2011 to present

Bangladesh Bhutan India The Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka. Afghanistan joined later on 3rd April, 2007

The People's Republic of China has shown its interest in joining SAARC. Indonesia intends to become an observer Russia intends to become an observer Myanmar has expressed an interest in joining as a full member Iran asked to join the SAARC as an observer.

The 14th SAARC summit took place in New Delhi (India) during the 2nd and 4th of April, 2007. Afghanistan inducted as 8th member Focus on peace, prosperity The year 2007 was declared as the year of Green South Asia. Member countries welcomed the ratification of SAFTA.

The 15th SAARC summit took place in Colombo (Sri Lanka) during the 1st and 3rd of August, 2008. Summit concluded has taken far-reaching decisions on key issues affecting the region such as terrorism, food and fuel security and trade, with discussions that had a strong focus, on economic and commercial cooperation.

The 16th summit of SAARC was held in Thimpu, Bhutan between 28-29 April 2010 SAARC leaders signed a SAARC Convention on Cooperation on Environment to tackle the problem of climate change. The SAARC nations also pledged to plant 10 million trees.

The 17th SAARC Summit will be held in Maldives' capital Male next year. And main agenda will be Climate Risks in the Region .

Signed on 11th April 1993 in Dhaka Framework for Tariff concessions Promoting trade & economic cooperation India, Pakistan& Sri Lanka are non-least developed countries Recognition of the special needs of the Least Developed States and agreement on concrete preferential measures in their favour

SAPTA covering over 5000 commodities.

The Agreement on the South Asian Free Trade Area is an agreement reached at the 12th SAARC summit at Islamabad. The seven foreign ministers of the region signed a framework agreement on SAFTA with zero customs duty on the trade of practically all products in the region by end 2016. The least developed nations in South Asia consisting of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives have an additional three years to reduce tariffs to zero.