Gayoom sole leader to attend all 14 SAARC meets

New Delhi, Apr 3: Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is the only South Asian leader who has attended all the summits of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) since the first one held in Dhaka in December, 1985.

This was disclosed by 70-year-old Gayoom himself when he addressed the 14th summit of the SAARC, which began its two-day deliberations on regional issues here today.

While Gayoom was the senior most SAARC leader to attend the summit, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai became the junior most as his country was formally admitted to the regional grouping as a permanent member only today.

The first summit of SAARC was held on December 7-8 in 1985 at Dhaka.

Mr Gayoom said he had attended all the 13 summits held earlier and his presence in the present summit made him the only South Asian leader to attend all the 14 summits.

In fact, he had hosted two SAARC summits in his country -the fifth summit (November 21-23, 1990) and the ninth summit (May 12-14, 1997).

Mr Gayoom has been the President of Republic of Maldives since November 11, 1978, having succeeded Mr Ibrahim Nasir.

He was last re-elected to a sixth five-year term in October 2003 with 90.28 per cent of the votes. He was the sole candidate, having been chosen by the majlis or assembly.

UNI