KATMANDU, Nepal — South Asian leaders, including those from rivals India and Pakistan, gathered in Nepal’s capital Wednesday to boost cooperation in trade and energy and seek greater peace in the region, home to more than a fifth of the world’s population.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit, the first since 2011, is meant as a forum to discuss regional issues, but is usually dominated by the rivalry between Pakistan and India. It is supposed to be held annually, but is often shelved due to member nations disagreeing on meeting dates.
At this year’s gathering in Katmandu, the possibility of a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, threatened to overshadow the proceedings.
In his opening remarks at the summit, Modi recalled the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, in which Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people over four days. Relations between India and Pakistan were frozen after the attacks, and not much progress has been made to restore bilateral ties to normalcy.