The 16th ministerial meeting of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is taking place in Kathmandu on Wednesday morning.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali will chair the meeting. The Foreign/External Affairs Ministers of other BIMSTEC member nations will make their statements in the meeting.

The meeting will see presentation of reports by the Secretary General of BIMSTEC and the reports of the Special and 19th Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM). Similarly, meeting would be briefed on the preparations for the Fourth BIMSTEC Summit and it would finalise the BIMSTEC Convention/MoU ready for signature as well as the Draft Kathmandu Declaration of the Fourth BIMSTEC Summit.

The meeting will also adopt the Report of the 16th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated.

Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Minister of State for External Affairs of India Dr VK Singh, Union Minister of International Cooperation of Myanmar Mr Kyaw Tin, Sri Lankan State Minister of Foreign Affairs Vasantha Senanayake and Foreign Minister of Thailand Don Pramudwinai and Bhutanese Foreign Secretary Sonam Tshong will lead the delegations from their respective countries in the meeting.

Bhutan has delegated the pro tem authority to Foreign Secretary Tshong to participate in the ministerial meeting in the context of announcement of general elections there. RSS