Prime Minister Koirala is attending the convocation ceremony of the SAU, scheduled for June 11 in New Delhi, as Nepal currently chairs the SAARC. "We have received an invitation. We are currently working out the details of his visit," said the prime minister's Foreign Relations Advisor Dr Dinesh Bhattarai.
Established in 2010 following an inter-governmental agreement among SAARC nations, the SAU has the provision to keep the chair of the regional body as its Visitor.
While Koirala will chair convocation ceremony, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to be the chief guest at the function. SAARC Secretary General Arjun Bahadur Thapa will also visit New Delhi to take part in the function.
Koirala is also likely to have bilateral meetings with Indian political leadership during his stay in India in the course of the convocation ceremony.
The university will award master's degrees to its first, second and the third batches of students during the convocation. Also, toppers of various master's programs will be honored with the gold medal on the occasion.
The SAU initiated by then Indian prime minister during the SAARC Summit held in 2005 in Dhaka currently offers Master's and PhD degrees on various six disciplines including on International Relations, Biology, Math, Sociology, Law and Computer Science.
The main objectives of the SAU include enhancing learning in the South Asian community that promotes an understanding of each others' perspectives and strengthen regional consciousness, providing liberal and humane education to the brightest and the most dedicated students of South Asia so that a new class of quality leadership is nurtured and enhancing capacity building of the South Asian Nations in science, technology and other areas of higher.
Although the first ever convocation of the SAU graduates was to have been organized on December 6, 2013, the University had to postpone the program as then SAARC Secretary General Ahmed Saleem and the SAU Visitor Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom expressed their inability to attend the function due to adverse political situation at their home country.
According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Spokesperson Tara Prasad Pokharel, all necessary preparations have been completed for the Prime Minister Koirala's visit to Indonesia to attend the 60th anniversary of Asian-African Conference Commemoration (AACC) and the 10th anniversary of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP).
Prime Minister Koirala is scheduled to leave for Jakarta on April 20 to attend the event organized with the main objective to evoke the spirit of the young generation and to preserve the spirit of solidarity among the Asian-African countries that were united under the umbrella of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1955.
Indonesian Government, which is organizing the event, has invited leaders from 109 Asian and African countries, 16 observer countries and 25 international organizations. The prime minister is scheduled to attend the 60th anniversary function of the AACC on April 22 and 23 in Jakarta and then go to Bandung on April 24 to attend the 10th Anniversary of function of the NAASP, Pokharel said.
Related story
Ambassador Upadhyay addresses SAU convocation ceremony
