Tuesday, April 12 2005 08:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India yesterday (Apr 11, 2005) remained non-committal on China's application for joining South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) but said that the matter would be discussed during the next Summit of the South Asian regional grouping.

"When the matter came up in SAARC meeting, there was consensus at not taking ad hoc decisions for considering request of countries for inclusion in the grouping with Observer status," Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told reporters in New Delhi.

He said that a need was emphasised on evolving "agreed criteria" on the basis of which "these kinds of requests" could be looked into.

"We need to decide precisely what will be the nature of association with the partner country or the observer country," Saran said, adding a mechanism for such a cooperation of a country needed to be evolved.

He said that it was decided that the SAARC Secretariat would prepare a paper on the issue for circulation among the member countries before the next Summit.

When the SAARC Summit takes place, the issue of applications for joining the grouping, not only from China but other countries and groups, will be discussed, he said.

To a question, he said China had made it clear that it had no "selfish interest" in South Asia.

Asked whether India took up the issue of Chinese arms supply to Pakistan, Saran said no specific issues were discussed but pointed out that Beijing had expressed support to the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan.