PM to attend BIMSTEC summit 30 Aug

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to attend the fourth BIMSTEC summit, scheduled to be held on 30-31 August in Kathmandu, Nepal, reports UNB quoting an official on Sunday.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has seven member states - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

This will be a brief visit and several bilateral meetings are likely to take place on the sidelines of the summit, said the official adding that Rohingya issue, among others, will come up for discussion in informal setting.

The prime minister is likely to hold a bilateral meeting with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi after formal inauguration of the summit, said a diplomatic source though the foreign ministry did not confirm it yet.

On 4 August, Nepalese prime minister KP Sharma Oli invited prime minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the BIMSTEC summit to be held in Nepal.

During the 10-minute phone conversation, the Nepalese prime minister invited his Bangladeshi counterpart and especially requested her to attend the BIMSTEC summit.

Secretary general of the BIMSTEC M Shahidul Islam also met Nepalese prime minister Oli at Baluwatar recently.

Nepalese prime minister Oli highlighted the need to have concrete outcomes from the BIMSTEC process for the benefit of the peoples of the region.

The host country said the upcoming fourth BIMSTEC summit must assess its role of past twenty years and chart out the plan of action with time bound targets for the future course of action in order to have positive impacts on the life of our peoples.