Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said Nepal is committed to hosting the fourth Bimstec Summit by the end of this year.

As the chair of the regional grouping, it is Nepal’s turn to host the summit but due to political reasons, Kathmandu was unable to host the event last year. Nepal had committed during the third Bimstec summit in Myanmar in 2015 that it would organise the summit in 2016 but officials blamed the earthquakes of 2015, India’s subsequent economic blockade and the unrest in the plains for the failure to meet the deadline.

PM Dahal assured Bimstec Secretary General Sumith Nakandala on Monday that preparations were being made to host the summit.

Nakandala is in Kathmandu for the Bimstec Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) that began on Sunday. The agenda for the summit would include connectivity, energy and economic development, according to a statement issued by the PM’s Secretariat.

Nakandala, a Sri Lankan national, told the PM that he would for push the development of Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, at personal and institutional levels.

Nepal, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar are the members of the regional grouping which works in 14 areas of cooperation including combating terrorism, cultural exchanges, trade and commerce, people to people relations, fishery and climate change, among others.

On Tuesday, Nepal will propose the date. Shanker Das Bairagi, foreign secretary and head of the Nepali delegation, chairs the seventeenth session of the Bimstec-SOM.