Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz arrived in Nepal on Monday for a two-day official visit to this Himalayan kingdom to discuss regional and bilateral issues. Aziz is leading a 63-member delegation that includes officials from Pakistan's ministries of commerce, power and trade. During the visit, Aziz will hold talks with Nepalese officials on regional and bilateral issues, officials said. He was welcomed at Katmandu's airport by Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, and was also scheduled to meet King Gyanendra during the visit. Aziz's trip is the first of a series of visits he plans to member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC. Pakistan currently holds the chairmanship of the regional organization, which consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is customary for the SAARC chairman, a position held on an annually rotating basis, to visit each member state at least once. Aziz is expected later this month to make his first-ever visit to India. SAARC's next summit is scheduled to be held early next year in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.
