SAARC leaders flag off Car rally at summit

New Delhi, Apr 3: The leaders of the SAARC countries today flagged off a car rally at the 14th summit of the regional grouping, symbolising South Asia's regional identity and highlighting the geographical and cultural diversity of the region.

The ''SAARC Car Rally,'' which started from Cox's Bazaar in Bangladesh on March 15 this year, has so far travelled through Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan. It reached here yesterday.

Flagged off by SAARC leaders at the Vigyan Bhavan, the venue of the summit, the rally proceeds to Sri Lanka and concludes in Maldives on April 14.

Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh of India, Girija Prasad Koirala of Nepal, Khandu Wangchuk of Bhutan and Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan, Presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives and Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka and Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and SAARC Secretary General Lyonpo Chenkyab Dorji were present on the occasion.

A team from Afghanistan also joined the Car rally here after its membership in SAARC was formalised at the start of the summit.

Organised in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the car rally was intended to promote people-to-people contact, tourism and business opportunities in the region.

''It also underlines the need for enhancing connectivity among the countries and the people of the region,'' a spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said here today.

UNI

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