mo4ch:>Pakistan snubs regional group's meeting on Covid-19, objecting as India takes charge of conference | Mo4ch News

Islamabad has boycotted a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to discuss a collective response to Covid-19, insisting the conference must be led by its official secretariat instead of New Delhi.While the organization “provides an important platform for regional cooperation,” the latest meeting between trade officials “could only be effective if spearheaded by the SAARC Secretariat,” a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Wednesday, referring to Nepal, which coordinates the eight-member regional bloc.Since the SAARC Secretariat was not part of today’s video conference, Pakistan chose not to participate.The virtual meeting was held earlier on Wednesday to discuss a common regional strategy to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the second such conference held since March. The previous call – where all eight member states were present – came after a four-year hiatus of the SAARC, prompted by intense disagreement between Islamabad and New Del…