Colombo, Mar. 12: The 15th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be held here from July 27 to August 3 this year.

The last summit was held in India in April last year.

According to the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry, the summit will be chaired by Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh before handing over the chair to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The SAARC summit was initially planned to be held in Kandy but citing security reasons, Colombo authorities shifted the venue.

In the run-up to the summit, a meeting of Focal Points of SAARC Terrorist Offences Moniting Desk (SDOMD) will be held in Islamabad on March 25. It will be followed by the fourth meeting of the SAARC Working Group on Energy on March 26 and 27, a meeting of the expert group on networking among police authorities of member states on March 26 and the seventh SAARC Conference on Cooperation in Police Matters on March 27. (ANI)