India hands over BIMSTEC chair to Myanmar
December 11th, 2009 - 4:05 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS) Handing over the chairmanship of BIMSTEC to Myanmar, India Friday said the seven-nation organisation is “a bridge” linking South and Southeast Asia with India’s northeastern states and underlined the need for greater regional economic integration.
“We see BIMSTEC as an important vehicle to promote regional cooperation and economic integration in a range of areas,” External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said in the Myanmar capital Nay Pyi Taw while handing over the chairmanship of BIMSTEC to his Myanmarese counterpart U. Nyan Win.
“We also see BIMSTEC as a bridge linking South and South East Asia with the North East region of our country,” he said at the 12th ministerial meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
India is pushing for greater trade and connectivity between the seven countries comprising BIMSTEC and its northeastern states.
BIMSTEC comprises seven countries which ring the Bay of Bengal namely India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. India hosted the second BIMSTEC summit last year.
Underlining India’s commitment to bolstering cooperation with the BIMSTEC region, Krishna called for more collaborative efforts to reap full dividends of intra-regional cooperation.
“We would like to see BIMSTEC develop as a vibrant organisation. For the last three years of our chairmanship of BIMSTEC, we have been striving towards this goal,” he said.
BIMSTEC has identified 14 areas of cooperation which include health, energy, technology, human resource development, trade, tourism and culture.
- BIMSTEC signs terrorism pact, pushes for early FTA (Lead) - Dec 11, 2009
- S.M.Krishna arrives in Myanmar for 12th meet of BIMSTEC - Dec 10, 2009
- 12th Ministerial meet of BIMSTEC begins in Myanmar - Dec 11, 2009
- Regional BIMSTEC grouping adopts a convention to combat terrorism - Dec 12, 2009
- India's northeast can be regional bridge: Tharoor - Apr 09, 2010
- Myanmar could be India's next-door energy supplier: Chinese expert - May 25, 2012
- India pledges Myanmar $10 mn, donates 10 rice silos (Second Lead) - Jun 21, 2011
- Krishna heads to Myanmar for BIMSTEC meet Thursday - Dec 09, 2009
- India pushes for more intra-SAARC trade - Sep 16, 2010
- India backs economic integration of South Asia - Sep 09, 2011
- What is BIMSTEC? (Fact File) - Nov 13, 2008
- India eyes trade, connectivity during PM's Myanmar visit - May 25, 2012
- India to support democratisation of Myanmar - Jan 24, 2012
- Let not political differences affect South Asia integration: India (Roundup) - Mar 09, 2012
- Time to do more business in South Asia: India (Lead) - Mar 09, 2012
Tags: bay of bengal, bimstec, chairmanship, collaborative efforts, counterpart, dividends, economic cooperation, energy technology, external affairs minister, health energy, human resource development, krishna, nepal bhutan, northeastern states, regional cooperation, regional economic integration, south east asia, southeast asia, taw, vibrant organisation