South Asian Speakers’ Summit

  1. The fourth South Asian Speakers Summit was held in Male,Maldives. The annual summit was organised jointly by the Inter Parliamentary Union(IPU) and the Maldives parliament.
  2. The summit was attended by the senior lawmakers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
  3. The main focus of the summit was on Sustainable Development Goals-2030 and how to make and impact to achieve these goals.
  4. The summit adopted the Male declaration.The declaration has called on member states to work collectively for the promotion of equality at work, equal remuneration and creation of jobs for youths. 
  5. However,the declaration overlooked all assertions made by the Pakistan parliamentary delegation to get a passing reference to Kashmir issue.
  6. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is an international organisation of parliament.It was established in 1889 with an aim to promote the parliamentary dialogue world-wide and works for peace and cooperation among the people.