Nepal proposes dates for Bimstec Summit

Nepal has come up with two dates for the fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec).

The Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota said, August 30 and 31 or September 6 and 7 have been proposed for the Kathmandu summit, Kathmandu Post reported.

The newly appointed Bimstec General Secretary Shahidul Islam recently visited Nepal to hold meetings with Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali and Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi.

Bimstec is an international organisation of seven nations of South Asia and South East Asia including Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It houses 1.5 billion people.

It was founded in 1997 and has its permanent secretariat in Dhaka. It functions in 14 different areas of cooperation.