Eighth meeting of SAARC Ministers of Law & Order held in Colombo

8th meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Ministers of Law and Order (Interior/Home Affairs) was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 11th – 13th July, 2017.

Highlights of 8th meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Ministers of Law and Order:

• This year’s meeting was organized by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Law, Order and Southern Development in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs.
• The meeting held discussions on a wide range of issues related to SAARC countries including the development and implementation of SAARC Visa Exemption Stickers Scheme in order to ease visa processing for citizens of member nations while travelling within SAARC countries.
• Issues of growing cyber crimes in the context of rapidly developing information technology and ways to curb them, immigration, crime control, security arrangement, among other regional issues, were also discussed at the meeting.
• All the member nations condemned terrorism, cross border crimes, drugs smuggling, among other criminal activities. Serious commitments were made to increase bilateral and regional cooperation to end such serious crimes against humanity.

About South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC):

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia which promotes economic development and regional integration.

• Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistanand Sri Lanka are the member countries of SAARC.
• SAARC comprises nearly 3% of the world’s area and about 21% of the world’s population.
• It was established on December 8, 1985 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Secretariat of SAARC is located in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• Amjad Hussain B Sial of Pakistan is the current Secretary-General of SAARC.