Pakistan only SAARC nation to skip COVID-19 fund

New Delhi, Mar 25: Pakistan is the only SAARC nation that has not contributed to the COVID-19 fund for grouping. The grouping has already received commitments to the tune of 18.8 million USD.

It may be recalled that the fund was created with an initial contribution of 10 million USD from India. This was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a video conferencing with the leaders of the grouping on March 15.

Afghanistan has contributed 1 million USD, while in the case of Bangladesh and Bhutan it was 1.5 million and 100,000 USD respectively. Maldives has contributed 200,000 USD while Nepal and Sri Lanka contributed 1 million and 5 million USD.

Pakistan it may be recalled during the video conferencing was not represented by the head of the country. Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan had in fact sent a representative for the video conferencing. So far there has been no pledge from Pakistan for the fund.

The External Affairs Ministry said in a statement that the contributions by these nations truly reflects the deeply shared sense of determination in the participating countries together.