Preparations for 4th BIMSTEC Summit in final stage in Nepal

In Nepal the preparations for Fourth Summit of the Heads of State/Government of Member States of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) are in the final stage.

The summit will be held in Kathmandu from Thursday. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the summit. During the two day Summit leaders of member states will review progress achieved so far in the areas of cooperation and provide guidance to the future work of the BIMSTEC.

The President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari will meet leaders of BIMSTEC member states and host a luncheon in their honour on Thursday. The Prime Minister of Nepal K.P. Sharma Oli will host a dinner and a cultural programme in the same evening. Next day the leaders will witness signing ceremony of the legal instrument of BIMSTEC and consider the draft Kathmandu Declaration of the Summit. Meanwhile, the Nineteenth Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) of BIMSTEC is being held in Kathmandu today to take stock of the preparations of the Summit.

The Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is leading Indian team of senior officials. The Sixteenth Ministerial Meeting of BIMSTEC will be held tomorrow. 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.