MEA Secretary East attends BIMSTEC, EAS meetings

New Delhi [India], March 9 : Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (East) Saurabh Kumar on Wednesday attended BIMSTEC Senior Officials' Meeting as well as participated in the East Asia Summit (EAS) Senior Officials' Meeting.
Taking to social media and informing this MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted "Secretary East @AmbSaurabhKumar attended the BIMSTEC Senior Officials' Meeting hosted virtually by Chair Thailand today. SOM made important recommendations to strengthen BIMSTEC for approval at the 19th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting to be held tomorrow."
BIMSTEC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, is a regional organization connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia. Established in 1997, this interregional body aims to improve economic cooperation among its member countries, which include India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
With a core objective to enhance economic ties, BIMSTEC is poised to usher in a new era of regional cooperation and pave the way for a more prosperous future for its member nations. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) celebrated its 25th anniversary on June 6 2022.
Unlike the SAARC, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation has continued to organise summits and meetings of Foreign Ministers beyond 2014. BIMSTEC has hosted five conferences so far, but the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) has only convened one since its inception in 1997. It has now decided to hold regular summits every two years.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation grouping conducted its fifth summit on March 30, 2022, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The theme of the fifth summit is "Towards a Resilient Region, Prosperous Economies, and Healthy People." This reflects the current priorities of the member states and the efforts of BIMSTEC to help them deal with the economic and development consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main outcome of the fifth summit was the adoption and signing of the BIMSTEC Charter, which formalises the grouping into an organisation comprised of member states that are coastal and dependent on the Bay of Bengal.
The fifth summit also saw significant progress in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation connectivity agenda, with leaders adopting the "Master Plan for Transport Connectivity," which lays out a framework for future connectivity-related activities in the region.
"Secretary (East) @AmbSaurabhKumar participated in the East Asia Summit (EAS) Senior Officials' Meeting today, chaired by Indonesia (EAS Chair)," tweeted Bagchi.
The East Asia Summit is the Indo-Pacific's prime forum for strategic dialogue at which all key partners meet to analyze political, security, and economic concerns faced by the Indo-Pacific.
This forum possesses a major role to play in advancing closer regional cooperation. The East Asia Summit (EAS) is a regional forum organized every year by the leaders of, originally 16 nations in the East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian regions, based on the ASEAN Plus Six mechanism.
The Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar addressed the 17th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia held in November 2022.
India's Vice President emphasized the role of the EAS mechanism in promoting free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific with freedom of navigation and overflight.