Press Release
The Fifteenth BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting is being held in Kathmandu on 11 August 2017. The Ministerial Meeting will be preceded by the Eighteenth Session of the BIMSTEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM).
The Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba will inaugurate the Ministerial Meeting and address the Meeting on 10th of August 2017. The Foreign/External Affairs Ministers will make a collective call on the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister on the same day.
The SOM will discuss on matters relating to formation of Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG), BIMSTEC FTA, and MoU for the Establishment of the BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection, among others and prepare agenda for the Ministerial Meeting.
The following day, Ministerial Meeting will review the progress and achievements in the identified fourteen areas of cooperation and will discuss on the ways to accelerate the cooperation under the BIMSTEC process.
Hon. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Krishna Bahadur Mahara, will chair the 15th Ministerial Meeting as the leader of Nepali Delegation while Foreign Secretary, Mr. Shanker Das Bairagi, will chair the Eighteenth Session of BIMSTEC-SOM.
Hon. Mr. Mahara will host a Dinner in honour of the Foreign/External Affairs Ministers of the BIMSTEC Member States and other Delegates attending the meeting.
The Foreign/External Affairs Ministers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka and the Deputy Foreign Ministers from Myanmar and Thailand have confirmed their participation in the Ministerial Meeting.
This Ministerial Meeting is being convened at a time when the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the BIMSTEC is celebrated throughout this year and for the first time in Kathmandu after Nepal assumed the chairmanship of BIMSTEC in 2014.
Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is the sub-regional grouping comprising seven countries of South Asia and South East Asia. Nepal is the current Chair of the BIMSTEC. Its Secretariat is located in Dhaka.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kathmandu,
Nepal
07 August 2017