BIMSTEC parley begins tomorrow
President Mahinda Rajapaksa will attend the summit conference of the
Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic
Cooperation (BIMSTEC) to be held in New Delhi on November 13. President
Mahinda Rajapaksa is also scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with
India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
BIMSTEC comprising of Bay Bengal states such as Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand was established in 1997,
is a $810 billion economy, sharing about 22% of world population and
3.64 per cent of surface area.
After a gap of three years, India is to host the second BIMSTEC
summit during November 11-13, 2008 at New Delhi. The last summit was
held in Bangkok in 2004. The summit-level meeting in BIMSTEC was delayed
mainly due to political reasons and non-cooperation of some of the
member countries.
The one-day 2nd Summit, to be attended by Sri Lanka President Mahinda
Rajapaksa , Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leaders from Nepal,
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Thailand, is expected to focus on
forging closer integration of the member countries that spread across
South Asia and South east Asia. The specific areas expected to be
covered include trade, counter-terrorism, trans-national crimes,
tourism, fisheries and public health.
The leaders are also expected to review the progress on the proposed
Free Trade Agreement between BIMSTEC member states. The current trade
amongst BIMSTEC countries is around USD 20 billion. C.R. Jayasinghe,
High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in New Delhi, speaking to Asian Tribune
said that the BIMSTEC summit is scheduled to take place on the 13th of
this month.
He said that there are three segments of the proceedings, one is the
meeting of the officials, others is the ministerial segment followed by
the Summit of leaders of the BIMSTEC member states.
The Conference will begin from tomorrow and in the official
conference, Additional Secretary to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Prasad Kariyawasam will participate followed by the Ministerial
Conference on the 12th in which Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama
will head the Sri Lanka delegation and on 13th there will be the summit
where President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be participating. According to
the High Commissioner along with the President his Secretary Lalith
Weeratunga and coordinating Secretary Sajin Vas Gunawardene are expected
arrive in New Delhi.
Sri Lankan High Commissioner said that the endeavour of the BIMSTEC
is to go in for a free trade regime of the seven states which are Bay of
Bengal communities. Also he said the summit will discuss the
establishment of a secretariat for the BIMSTEC.
The High Commissioner said that on the sidelines of the summit
conference, President Rajapaksa is also scheduled to have a bilateral
meeting with India’s Prime Minister.
Also according to the programme, head of states who are attending the
summit are expected to call on the President of India. |