Thimphu, April 28: With just half-a-day left for the 16th SAARC summit to commence in the National Assembly hall, six out of seven leaders have reached the capital.
The first one to arrive in Thimphu was Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapakse. Rajapakse, who reached here this Monday, remained busy like other leaders in bilateral meetings yesterday.
Except the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, PMs of all other SAARC nations flew in Tuesday morning, while their Bhutanese counterpart Jigmi Y Thinley received them at Paro airport.
Indian PM is hoped to arrive today before the formal opening of the SAARC summit at 1:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the fifth regional meet of South Asia Free Media Association ended in Paro yesterday. Altogether 174 journalists from SAARC countries took part in the regional gathering.
Organizers responsible to provide logistics to media persons are finding tough to allocate seats for some 300 journalists since the media gallery in NA hall just contains 106 seats.
When no seats are available, journalists will be allowed to enter the hall only when their leaders address the summit.
