Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade RGOB
The Royal Government will participate in the Third Meeting of SAARC Ministers for Interior/Home in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 26th June 2010. The Ministerial meeting, which will focus on regional efforts to combat terrorism and transnational crimes and intelligence sharing, will be preceded by meetings of Home Secretaries, Police Officials, Immigration Authorities, and Narcotics Control Officials.
The nine member delegation, led by Honโble Home Minister, Lyonpo Minjur Dorji. includes the Home Secretary, senior officials of the RBP, Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bhutan Narcotics Control Board.
The Meetings will be, amongst others, discussing matters relating to challenges posed by terrorism, drug trafficking and trafficking in human beings. They would be reviewing the implementation of the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and its Additional Protocol, SAARC Convention on Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, SAARC Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, Colombo Declaration on Combating Terrorism and strengthening the institutional mechanisms of SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk (STOMD) and SAARC Drug Offences Monitoring Desk (SDOMD) for accelerating cooperation.
As current Chair of SAARC, Bhutan is committed to supporting and advancing regional cooperation. This is the first SAARC Ministerial level meeting convened since the Thimphu XVIth Summit in April 2010.
The Second Meeting of SAARC Ministers of Interior/Home was held in October 2007 in New Delhi.
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THIMPHU
Date: 24 June 2010
