BIMSTEC: Ministerial-level meet endorses draft of Summit Declaration

KATHMANDU, Aug 29: The 16th ministerial-level BIMSTEC meeting held in Kathmandu concluded on Wednesday endorsing the text of draft Summit Declaration. The meeting also recommended the BIMSTEC member states for approval of the draft.

In Wednesday's meeting, the ministers expressed their readiness to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Establishment of BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection.

Likewise, the meeting also reviewed the whole range of cooperation under the BIMSTEC deciding to further consolidate regional cooperation process.

Earlier, in his opening remarks Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali made it a point to say that BIMSTEC has been a unique regional platform because of its history, geographical contiguity, great civilization links and existence of potentials.

Likewise, the draft texts of a few new agreements such as the Agreement on Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters, BIMSTEC Motor Vehicle Agreement, BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement, and The draft text of the Trade Facilitation Agreement were also discussed during the meeting.

On Wednesday, Nepal's Foreign Minister Gyawali handed over the chairmanship of the BIMSTEC ministerial meeting to the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka as per the BIMSTEC practice. Now, the seventeenth ministerial meeting will be held in Sri Lanka.