Ahead of the fourth meeting of Interior Ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on Saturday, Interior Secretaries of the SAARC nations will meet in Thimphu on Friday. Terrorism will be the focal point of their agenda as the shadow of the July 13 Mumbai serial blasts looms large in the background.
Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh, who took over on June 30, will be leaving for Thimphu on Thursday to attend the meeting of the Interior Secretaries. This will be his first visit abroad after taking over as Home Secretary.
Among other things, the meeting will review the progress made in the implementation of the decisions taken at the third meeting of the Interior Secretaries held on June 25 last year at Islamabad. Progress made in the implementation of the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and the SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances will also be reviewed, official sources said here.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will be attending the Ministerial meeting.
The 13th SAARC Summit held in Dhaka in November, 2005, condemned terrorist violence in all its forms and manifestations. The heads of state agreed that terrorism was a challenge to all states and a threat to humanity and could not be justified on any grounds. They decided that the SAARC Interior/Home Ministers would meet annually, preceded by a meeting of the Interior/Home Secretaries, to strengthen cooperation in this area. The first Meeting of SAARC Interior Ministers was held in Dhaka on May 11, 2006.
