Good to see Pakistan realises merit of regional cooperation: India on Islamabad inviting SAARC nations for coronavirus COVID-19 meet

New Delhi: Recalling its move on SAARC for a regional strategy, India on Thursday appreciated Pakistan finally showing enthusiasm for regional calls on coronavirus COVID-19. Pakistan on Thursday hosted a meet on COVID-19 pandemic in which the country had invited all the SAARC countries. India also participated in the meet. Sources said, "Good to see Pakistan has realized the merit of regional cooperation and joining the initiative."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for SAARC video conference in March. Speaking on this, sources said, "Regional cooperation is an important part of dealing with COVID-19". After the meet, the SAARC emergency fund was established and health and commerce ministers spoke on the current crisis.

SAARC emergency fund has a corpus of 18 million dollars with India's contribution being 10 million dollars. 

Pakistan was initially hesitant with the meet, sending junior advisor for the SAARC head of state video conference meeting. The country was last to announce its contribution for the SAARC COVID-19 meet. It also did not participate in SAARC agriculture meet on COVID-19 citing non-involvement of SAARC secretariat even though other countries participated.