SAARC Boycott Almost Complete: Maldives Seeks A Conducive Environment For Summit

India is gaining more support as countries are queuing up to join New Delhi in isolating Islamabad over its policy of fomenting terrorism.

A day after Sri Lanka followed India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in boycotting the SAARC Summit to be held in Islamabad this November, Maldives has asked for a conducive environment to hold the meeting.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry read:

"The Government of Maldives has urged the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to create an environment conducive for holding the 19th SAARC Summit. The appeal follows the decisions by some of the member states who have expressed their inability to attend the summit scheduled for November due to terrorism, and threats to regional and international peace."

The statement added that the Maldives condemns international terrorism, especially those originating from outside and went on to say that the summit could only take place with cooperation from all heads of state.

Pakistan has announced that the summit will be postponed, while current chair Nepal said that the summit will not take place even if one member nation was unable to participate.

With inputs from IANS.