Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju today said, all south Asian nations recognise the importance of including disaster risk management as an integral part of developmental planning and programmes to realize the global goals of sustainable development. He was speaking at the inauguration of the first South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise SAADMEx-2015 in New Delhi. Mr Rijiju said, disaster mitigation should be looked from the scientific point of view and the approach should also be scientific to deal with it.<br/><br/>The main objective of the exercise is to provide a platform for strengthening regional disaster response mechanism amongst the SAARC countries. The common exercise with the participation of delegations and rescuers from each of the 8 SAARC Nations will be conducted by the National Disaster Response Force. The key focus of SAADMEx-2015 is to test coordination efforts, create synergy and synchronize efforts to institutionalise regional cooperation on disaster response among the member countries.