Foreign Minister (FM) Ramesh Nath Pandey has said that the 8th BIMSTEC ministerial meeting took important decisions in the fields of trade regime, energy cooperation, tourism, private sector participation, and transport connectivity, which would immensely benefit Nepal.

Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey (File photo)

Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey (File photo)
Talking to journalists at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Wednesday upon his arrival after participating at the 8th BIMSTEC ministerial meeting held in Dhaka, minister Pandey said, “The meeting was successful in charting out a roadmap for achieving its objectives, and in this regard, it has identified sectors of immediate benefit like health, and long term benefit like transport connectivity among member nations.”

Pandey also informed that BIMSTEC member countries took positively Nepal’s expression of interest to coordinate as Chair Country in small hydropower, and adventure and eco-tourism sub-sector.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister Pandey met with Morshed Khan, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh and agreed to set up a consultative mechanism at the level of Foreign Ministers of the two countries to assess and open avenue for entire gamut of relations and mutual cooperation between the countries on a regular basis.

Minister Pandey also met with Minister of State for External Affairs of India E Ahamed, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Nyan Win and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Thailand Dr Kantathi Suphamongkhon.

BIMSTEC, which was established in 1997 groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri-Lanka and Thailand with the aim of creating and enabling environment for rapid economic development.

BIMSTEC, renamed as Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation after Nepal and Bhutan received its membership in February 2004.