President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom will be leaving for Colombo this morning to attend the 12th SAARC Summit to be held there from 2-3 August. Leaders of the 8 member countries of the South Asian Association will attend the Summit. The Summit was originally planned to be held in the hill capital of Sri Lanka, Kandy, but due to the security situation in Sri Lanka, the venue was subsequently changed to Colombo. Colombo is blanketed by very high security including special security contingent from India. LTTE who have been at war with Government forces, has announced a ceasefire during the period of the Summit.
South Asian leaders will discuss such urgent issues as terrorism, soaring price of oil, climate change and food security. Maldives is expected to raise the issue of the environmental human right which is an initiative taken by President Gayoom and a resolution passed by UN recently.
The Summit is preceded by a meeting of Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries. Foreign Minister Abdullah Shahid is already in Colombo with his Ambassador Abdul Aziz Yoosuf who will be attending these two meetings respectively. The 12th Summit was originally proposed to be held in the Maldives, but the turn was given to Sri Lanka at the latter's request. The 16th SAARC Summit is most likely to be held in Male' next. year. Maldives has hosted two Summits earlier. President Gayoom is the longest serving leader in the region who has attended all Summits held so far. Among member countries, Bhutan and Afghanistan are yet to host a Summit.
The Summit will be attended by US, Japan, China, Korea, EU and Iran as observers.
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