NEW DELHI: Chairing a unique interaction between the Saarc heads of state, PM Modi suggested rapid response teams of Indian doctors, specialists and testing gear for use by Saarc countries, online training for emergency response staff of participating nations, video-conferences by doctors for distance diagnosis.Towards the end of the interaction, Pakistan PM Imran Khan ’s special assistant on health, representing Khan, made a reference to Kashmir. Responding to a prompt from the background, Mirza said, “It is a matter of concern that #COVID19 has been reported from J&K and in view of health emergency, it is imperative that the lockdown in the territory must be lifted immediately.” Khan was the only head of government to be absent from the conference call.Government sources said they were not surprised Pakistan’s determination to raise Kashmir on an occasion intended to deal with a health emergency. PM Modi, who was apparently not surprised at the reference, ignored the comment and summed the discussions stressing on offers on cooperation.“Pakistan is trying to politicise a humanitarian initiative. Its a pity they chose to be churlish on this occasion. From our point of view, we have the political will to see this through. We could have kept Pakistan out. We chose to bring them in,” said official sources.Indian sources said the government will continue to demonstrate the political will and ability to lead in the region. In fact, Australian PM Scott Morrison said in Canberra on Sunday that in his chat with Modi, the PM had proposed a similar video-conference by G20 leaders, and that Australia would support it.The video conference showed in sharp relief the disconnect between most of the region’s countries and Pakistan. Except for Afghanistan , whose president Ashraf Ghani called for a different approach than closing borders, almost all other countries expressed willingness to work with India on this issue, including on post-epidemic economic revival measures. India has already sent a rapid response team to Maldives to deal with Covid challenge.Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka is more concerned about the impact of Covid epidemic on the region’s economy. Lotay Tshering of Bhutan is equally concerned that the pandemic would affect smaller and vulnerable economies disproportionately. Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh offered to host a secretariat to monitor health emergencies now and in future. Modi agreed to arrange for a meeting of trade officials to assess the economic impact of the pandemic.