A special meeting of Senior Officials of the Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was held in Kathmandu on Saturday.
The meeting was organised as part of preparations for the 4th BIMSTEC Summit to be held in Kathmandu on August 30 and 31.
Senior officers from all member states and Secretary General of BIMSTEC attended the meeting.
Talking to media persons after the meeting Foreign Secretary of Nepal Shankar Das Bairagi said that a wide range of issues including BIMSTEC structure, mechanisms and procedures, enhancing visibility of BIMSTEC, collaboration with other regional and international organisations with similar aims and purposes and establishment of a BIMSTEC Development Fund were discussed in the meeting.
He said that meeting also agreed to recommend a theme “Towards a peaceful, Prosperous and Sustainable Bay of Bengal Region” for the Summit. Nepal also shared a logo created for the upcoming Summit with the other member countries.
The proposed draft of the Kathmandu Declaration of the 4th Summit was also discussed.
BIMSTEC is a regional economic bloc comprising seven member states lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.
The group was formed in 1997 and it brings together Bangladesh, Bhutan India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. Nepal is the current chair of BIMSTEC.
