Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Morshed Khan on Wednesday hailed the success of the Saarc summit of South Asian countries, saying leaders wanted to take part in the new world order.
"The 12th summit of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation has raised the importance of Saarc and it gained new heights," Khan told reporters after returning home from the meeting in Islamabad.
He said because of the demands of time, the South Asian leaders "fully underscored the need for co-operation and accommodation instead of confrontation to resolve problems of the region."
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia joined leaders from Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives for the three-day summit, which ended on Tuesday.
The summit, chaired by Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, agreed that the next Saarc meeting would be held in Dhaka in January 2005.
Asked about ties between India and Pakistan after the summit, Khan said without elaborating: "I am very hopeful that ties between the two countries would improve (in the coming days), but with some reservations."
Refusing to give a precise time, he said Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had accepted Zia's invitation to visit Bangladesh.
The summit was eclipsed by a landmark meeting between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee in Islamabad on Monday.
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