Jaishankar suggests expansion, local solutions for BIMSTEC
India on Thursday made a big push to connect South Asia with SE Asia through The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar hosting his counterparts from the group's member states, including Myanmar, and exploring possibility of expanding the group to include three SE Asian states that have Bay of Bengal linkages.
In his opening remarks at the BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers' Retreat Jaishankar called upon the BIMSTEC countries to come up with own solutions which becomes even more imperative given the current global and regional scenario.
«The BIMSTEC Charter, for a start, has come into effect from May 20 this year. The global and regional developments also make it imperative that we find more solutions amongst ourselves.»
He said there are long-standing goals such as capacity building and economic cooperation that have acquired a new urgency and not least, a grouping that is so complementary and so congenial in its membership should surely harbour higher aspirations.
«Our hope is that these would be expressed as shared and ambitious BIMSTEC Vision,» said Jaishankar.
He said BIMSTEC countries had last met in a similar format in Bangkok in July last year.
«Much has happened since then and this should spur their endeavours to deepen and broaden the activities of BIMSTEC,» he added.
Jaishankar said that for India, BIMSTEC represents the intersection of its 'Neighbourhood First' outlook, the 'Act East Policy' and the 'SAGAR' vision.
«Each
