KATHMANDU: The much-talked-about video conference of SAARC leaders on chalking out a joint strategy to combat the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic in the region has begun.

Government heads and leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are participating in the video conversation that began at 05:15 pm on Sunday.

Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Oli has also joined the conference. He also already welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion towards that end.

Proposed by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the conference has been aimed at bringing together the eight-member SAARC nations to tackle the common problem of COVID-19, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it as a pandemic.

Modi had on Friday reached out to the regional members and pitched for a video conference to chalk out a common strategy to deal with the novel coronavirus.