(VOVworld) - India has officially announced it will not attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit to be held in November in Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Photo: Bloomberg)

The decision came in the aftermath of an attack in the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir which killed 18 soldiers. The Indian External Affairs Ministry said it had “conveyed to current SAARC Chair Nepal that increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region and growing interference in the internal affairs of Member States by one country have created an environment that is not conducive to the successful holding of the 19th SAARC Summit in Islamabad in November 2016.”