16th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting
Kathmandu, Aug. 29
Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said on Wednesday
that BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and
Economic Cooperation) was one of Nepal’s foreign policy priorities.
“Nepal attaches great importance to regional cooperation under BIMSTEC,”
he said while delivering the opening remarks at the 16th BIMSTEC
Ministerial Meeting here.
Saying that a regional organisation could flourish only with the
stronger commitment of its member states, he underscored the need of an
enhanced level of political will to make progress in various priority areas of
the regional mechanism.
“This is the time to do away with the business-as-usual approach. We
must pursue our goals with renewed vigour in a focused and time-bound manner.
We must display our quick collective and firm response to our collective
problems,” said Minister Gyawali.
According to him, a sincere pursuit of concerted efforts with a common
understanding is required to ensure that deeper integration results in a
win-win outcome for all the countries in the region.
He stressed on rationalising the priority areas and concentrating on
core economic areas, such as connectivity, trade, tourism, energy and
agriculture.
“If we are to achieve regional growth and prosperity, there is a need to
deepen rather than broaden and proliferate areas of cooperation under BIMSTEC.
Tangible results ensure credibility of our enterprise,” Gyawali said.
He said that connectivity was the enabler, energy the locomotive,
technology the accelerator, and investment and trade the drivers of regional
growth and prosperity for bringing about structural as well as socio-economic
transformation in the region.
These transformative factors of regional growth and prosperity should
top the BIMSTEC agenda from now onwards. They can be the game changer in our
march to shared prosperity, said the Foreign Minister.
He called for early conclusion of negotiations under the BIMSTEC Free
Trade Agreement expressed satisfaction that a master-plan on transport connectivity was being developed, said a MoU
on grid interconnections would be signed while calling for defeating terrorism
and combating other transnational crimes, Spokesperson at the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs Bharat Raj Poudyal said at a press briefing following the
ministerial meeting.
The meeting reviewed the whole gamut of cooperation under the regional
mechanism and decided to further consolidate the regional cooperation process.
Secretary-General of BIMSTEC Shahidul Islam updated the meeting about
the progress being made to finalise the draft text of Agreement on Cooperation
and Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters, BIMSTEC Motor Vehicle Agreement,
BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement, and Trade Facilitation Agreement.
He also reported that efforts were underway to operationalise a BIMSTEC
Energy Centre (BEC) in India and BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility (TTF) in
Sri Lanka.
According to Islam, the Trade Negotiating Committee held 20 rounds of
negotiations to execute the BIMSTEC Free Trade Area Framework Agreement. The
BIMSTEC Free Trade Area was signed in 2004.
He said that the BIMSTEC Transport Connectivity Master Plan would be
completed by the end of September this year.
The meeting endorsed the reports from the BIMSTEC Senior Officials’
Meeting (SOM) on Tuesday. The foreign ministers also endorsed the text of the draft
of the Summit Declaration and recommended it to the leaders of the member
states for approval.
“The ministers appreciated the progress achieved in the past, and
resolved to take more vigorous steps for more focused implementation of the
activities of the organisation,” said Poudyal.
The BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting had the presence of the Foreign
Ministers of Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, Pradeep
Kumar Gyawali and Don Pramudvinai respectively, Union Minister for
International Cooperation of Myanmar U Kyaw Tin, State Ministers for Foreign Affairs
of India and Sri Lanka Gen. Dr. V. K. Singh and Basantha Senanyake and Foreign
Secretary of Bhutan Sonam Tshong.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 30 August 2018.
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