Pakistan on Tuesday said it will invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the 20th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), two years after Islamabad’s failed attempt to host the gathering of regional countries following the boycott by India.  On the eve of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor in Narowal, some 120 kms from Lahore. SAARC Summits are usually held biennially hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the Association. The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Modi. SAARC currently has Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as its members.

Pakistan’s attempt to host the gathering in 2016 failed after India boycotted the summit following the Uri attack in September that year.  India had expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances” after a deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir. Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also pulled out of the summit, forcing Pakistan to scrap the event scheduled for November 2016.

 In the history of SAARC since its inception in 1985, the summit has been aborted only thrice. In 1991, Bhutan had opted out from the Colombo summit and in 2005 India withdrew from attending the summit in Dhaka. According to the eight-member body’s charter, the conference is postponed should any member state decline to participate.