Nepal proposes BIMSTEC charter development

Kathmandu, Aug. 24: Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said on Friday that Nepal has proposed developing a charter for the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

The regional mechanism, which was established 21 years ago, still does not have a charter to institutionalise cooperation among its seven members – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

A plan to establish thematic regional centres is also in the offing, Gyawali said at a press conference organised at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Singha Durbar.

He said that the government had given final shape to the Kathmandu Declaration of BIMSTEC Summit 2018, being organised on the theme ‘Towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region’.

“All the preparations for the Summit have been completed except for some small works. The Summit declaration and other agenda have been finalised and documented,” he said.

According to him, the BIMSTEC Summit will be attended by the Presidents of Myanmar and Sri Lanka -- Win Myint and Maithripala Sirisena -- and the Prime Ministers of India, Bangladesh and Thailand -- Narendra Modi, Sheikh Hasina and Prayut Chan-o-cha respectively.

Chief Advisor of the Interim Government in Bhutan Tshering Wangchuk will represent his country at the Summit.

All the chief executives will be accompanied by their foreign ministers and delegations.

Myanmar's President Myint will arrive Kathmandu on August 28 while Sirisena and Wangchuck will arrive on 29, and Modi and Chan-o-cha and Hasina will land here on August 30.

“Myint and Sirisena are also on bilateral visit to Nepal during their arrival for the Summit. Both of them will hold separate bilateral meetings with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and go on a pilgrimage to Lumbini in separate visits,” said Gyawali.

Similarly, Indian Prime Minister Modi will hold bilateral meeting with PM Oli. Nepal and India are likely to ink an agreement on Railway Cooperation, which also includes the movement of Nepali ‘bulk cargo’ through india.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to meet the leaders of BIMSTEC member countries on August 30, the first day of the fourth BIMSTEC Summit, at a luncheon at Shital Niwas, the President’s Office.

PM Oli will inaugurate the Summit at the Soaltee Hotel in the afternoon on the same day. He will also host a dinner with a cultural programme for the high dignitaries the same evening.

The leaders will go for a retreat in the morning of August 31 and sign the Kathmandu Declaration.

Prior to the Summit, the Nineteenth Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) and Sixteenth Ministerial Meeting of BIMSTEC will be held on August 28 and 29 respectively in Kathmandu.

The SOM will deliberate on the Summit Agenda and Declaration, and make amendments if required, and the ministers will give final shape to it.

“Transport and communication connectivity, poverty alleviation, investment, trade and tourism, climate change and sustainability and security will be the major areas on which the leaders and delegations will be deliberating during the Summit and meetings,” said FM Gyawali.

He said that the member countries will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection.

The 17^th session of the BIMSTEC Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) held in Kathmandu in February 2017 had expressed their readiness to sign the MoU at the third Energy Ministers’ Meeting in March this year. But it couldn’t be signed during the ministers’ meeting.

The MoU will facilitate other BIMSTEC countries to import hydropower from Myanmar and exchange power.

This deal is in line with the SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation, which aims to set up a South Asian Regional Grid for cross-border power trade.

Meanwhile, speaking at a talk programme on ‘BIMSTEC: Connecting South and Southeast Asia’, organised by Centre for South Asian Studies in Kathmandu, Foreign Minister Gyawali said that the importance of BIMSTEC lay in connecting these two regions for the shared benefit and prosperity of the peoples of the Bay of Bengal region.

“BIMSTEC is well positioned to make notable contributions towards advancing regional connectivity, linking SAARC and ASEAN. For a landlocked country like Nepal, BIMSTEC carries more significance. It bears the prospects for propelling economic growth by connecting the hinterlands of the Himalayas to the ports of Bay of Bengal,” he said.

According to him, BIMSTEC will create a linkage between the south Asian and east Asian countries.

Nepal assumed the chairmanship of BIMSTEC after its third Summit meeting held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, in March 2014.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 August 2018.