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Download PDF Bangladesh yesterday offered to host a Saarc ministerial conference on climate change in line with the informal consultations during the last UN General Assembly session.
Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury made the offer at the meeting of the Saarc Council of Ministers in New Delhi.
The adviser stressed the importance of climate change and urged that the Saarc members states issue a strongly worded document, to be transmitted to the ongoing Bali Conference on Environment, emphasising a common position and pointing to the vulnerabilities of countries with long and low-lying coastlines.
He said Bangladesh sees the Saarc region as a zone of peace and development, emphasising that “regional cooperation should be intensified to meet the aspirations of our peoples.”
The adviser supported the nomination of a Saarc village in each member state where the “best practices” of the forum would be implemented.
He also proposed that each year one day be designated as “Saarc Day of Good Governance”.
The foreign adviser thanked the Saarc members who expressed solidarity with the government and people of Bangladesh in the wake of the disastrous cyclone Sidr.
He said, “Bangladesh will recover and the tragedy will be behind us. But as we move along the path of development, we will always warmly recall the support you all gave us at the time of our need.”
Before the commencement of the meeting, a two-minute silence was observed in memory of those who lost their lives in cyclone Sidr.
It was decided in an earlier informal meeting that Sri Lanka would host the Saarc summit in 2008 to be followed by the Maldives in 2009.
The Saarc ministers are due to call on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also the current chairman of Saarc, today (Saturday).
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