Eight South Asian countries will discuss over the next four days ways to relax visa norms and take forward various other initiatives including cooperation in fight against terrorism.

The SAARC Foreign Secretaries will meet here for two days from tomorrow, taking stock of the various initiatives aimed at cooperation in security, forging greater connectivity and economic integration.

They will finalise a report that will be considered by the meeting of Council of Ministers to be held on February 8 and 9.

Ahead of these meetings, joint secretaries in-charge of SAARC met here today to fine-tune the agenda.

The SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme is expected to be one of the major issues on the agenda of the meeting which would be attended by the External Affairs Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, and his counterparts from other seven member nations, sources said.

There has been a proposal for expanding the list of people from various fields of life to be exempted from visa requirement for travel within eight SAARC member countries.

At present MPs, judges, 100 identified business leaders, sportspersons and 150 journalists are availing themselves of the SAARC Visa facility.

Seeking a modification in the scheme, India wants that the prior approval should be accorded to the three categories — business persons, sportspersons and journalists.

Once the prior approval is taken, they may be given special stickers with long-term multi-entry provision, the sources said, adding that the idea was to improve the system so that it can be implemented effectively without any fear of misuse.

The SAARC council of ministers’ meeting is also expected to discuss the progress made in the implementation of regional Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

The MLAT was agreed upon at the SAARC summit in Colombo in 2008. Since then, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives have ratified it but Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal are yet to do so, the sources said.

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