DHAKA: Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the use of a bulletproof car provided by rival India for next week’s summit of South Asian leaders in Kathmandu.

A Nepalese official said on Monday, reports The Straits Times.

Sharif ‘will be bringing his own car... all other vehicles for (visiting) heads of countries have come from India’, said Nepal foreign ministry spokesman Khaga Nath Adhikari.

Adhikari denied the move was a snub specifically targeted at India, whose tense ties with Pakistan have worsened since October over some of the worst cross-border firing in years.

‘It’s not that they have refused to use an Indian car... when the US president travels, he also brings his own car, it’s not an issue,’ he told the media.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit will see the leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and Pakistan meet in Kathmandu on November 26 and November 27.

BDST: 1748 HRS, NOV 17, 2014