SAARC Foreign Ministers met informally in New York on 25 September 2014 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Dr. Mariyam Shakeela, Minister of Environment and Energy and Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives chaired the informal meeting organized by the Permanent Mission of Maldives in New York. Nepal holds the Chair of SAARC following its Seventeenth Summit in November 2014.

Opening the meeting, the Chairperson highlighted the important initiatives taken by Nepal in the implementation of the decisions of the eighteenth Summit.

Addressing the meeting, the Secretary-General briefed on current status of implementation of important decisions at the Thirty-fifth Session of the Council of Ministers. Further, he focused on progress in key areas of cooperation among the SAARC Member States since Thirty-fifth Session of Council of Ministers in Maldives, 20 February 2014. He also appraised the recommendations made in the Forty –sixth Meeting of the Programming Committee in Kathmandu and also regarding selective closure/merger of SAARC Regional Centres and Foty-seventh Sessions of the Programming Committee in Kathmandu regarding Engagement with observers.

Following the presentation by the Secretary-General, the Ministers deliberated upon several measures on current status of progress in different areas of regional cooperation in SAARC (since Thirty –fifth Session of the Council of Ministers, expeditious implementation of decisions taken by the SAARC Charter Bodies, including the SAARC Ministerial Meetings and The Eighteenth SAARC Summit and Thirty –sixth Session of the Council of Ministers- Brief by the host country about preparations.

The closing remarks were made by the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers.