The Postal administrations of the Afghanistan, Bangaladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have agreed to create a South Asian Postal Union

               The Postal Administrations of the South Asian Region have worked over the last 4 years to conceptualise and create a Postal Union in south Asia. While the concept had been deliberated upon earlier, the third meeting of the SAARC Working Group on Telecommunications & Information Technology held on 3rd - 4th March, 2009, in India mandated that “India may start taking necessary action with the objective to set up South Asian Postal Union.” In furtherance of this mandate, the work on creating a South Asian Postal Union commenced with discussions and meetings between the Postal Administrations of the countries of South Asia. A Regional Business meet was held in New Delhi in February 2011, followed by a South Asian Postal Expert Group meeting in New Delhi in September 2011, which discussed issues relating to the creation of the South Asian Postal Union, including a draft Constitution and its General Regulations and establishment of an Ad Hoc Secretariat with an interim Secretary General. The meeting of September 2011 issued a joint statement on formation of the Union, resolving that the formation of the Union be announced by the Chair of SAARC at the XVIIth SAARC Summit at Maldives in November 2011. This was done by the Chair of SAARC at the XVIIth SAARC Summit in Maldives in November 2011.
               In furtherance of these resolutions and commitments, the Ad Hoc Secretariat has been set up in New Delhi. The Secretariat will be working on finalising the Draft Constitution and General Regulations for the South Asian Postal Union, developing the structure of a permanent secretariat, coordinating with the Postal Administrations of the SAARC Countries, the SAARC Secretariat, the UPU and other stakeholders.   

               The proposed Union has tremendous potential and will contribute to furthering the cooperation which exists amongst the Postal Administrations of the region. It will build upon the existing strengths of the Posts and help in bringing their benefits to the people of the region. 

               The Ad Hoc Secretariat will be working to arrange further rounds of discussions so that a Congress for the creation of the South Asian Postal Union
can be called at the earliest.