Sri Lanka on Friday backed out of the 19th summit of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation in Islamabad, becoming the fifth country to skip the meeting of the eight-nation body, PTI reported. It was reported earlier that Saarc summit was likely to be cancelled as India, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh had all said they will not attend the meet scheduled for November 9-10.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Sri Lanka said in a statement that the prevailing environment in the region was "not conducive" to hold the summit. "The general provisions of the Saarc Charter require that decisions at all levels are taken on the basis of unanimity, and this applies to the convening of meetings of heads of states or the governments of Saarc member states, as well," it said, stressing the need to deal with terrorism in a decisive manner.

India had announced on Tuesday, September 27, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the Saarc summit in light of growing cross-border terrorism and because one country had created an environment "not conducive" to hold the meet. Pakistan had said they had not received any official communication in this regard. The announcement was made amid worsening Indo-Pakistan relations following the militant attack on an Army camp in Kashmir's Uri sector on September 18.