15th BIMSTEC ministerial meeting in Kathmandu on Aug 11
KATHMANDU: The 15th BIMSTEC ministerial meeting is going be held in Kathmandu on 11 August.
The ministerial meeting will be preceded by the 18th session of the BIMSTEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM), said a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Monday.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will inaugurate and address the meeting on 10th of August. The Foreign/External Affairs visiting Ministers will make a collective call on the Prime Minister the same day.
The SOM will discuss on matters relating to formation of Eminent Persons' Group (EPG), BIMSTEC FTA, and MoU for the Establishment of the BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection, among others and prepare agenda for the ministerial meeting.
The following day, ministerial meeting would review the progress and achievements in the identified fourteen areas of cooperation and discuss the ways to accelerate the cooperation under the BIMSTEC process.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, would chair the 15th ministerial meeting as the leader of Nepali delegation while Foreign Secretary, Shanker Das Bairagi, to chair the eighteenth session of BIMSTEC-SOM.
Moreover, Minister Mahara would host a dinner in honour of the Foreign/External Affairs Ministers of the BIMSTEC member states and other delegates attending the meeting.
The Foreign/External Affairs Ministers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka and the Deputy Foreign Ministers from Myanmar and Thailand have confirmed their participation in the ministerial meeting.
This ministerial meeting being convened at a time when the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the BIMSTEC is celebrated throughout this year and for the first time in Kathmandu after Nepal assumed the chairmanship of BIMSTEC in 2014.
Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is the sub-regional grouping comprising seven countries of South Asia and South East Asia.
Nepal is the current Chair of the BIMSTEC. Its Secretariat is located in Dhaka.