WORLD NEWS | MoS External Affairs highlights India’s millet diplomacy to address food crisis in BIMSTEC member states

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India]March 26 (ANI): The Bay of Bengal Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation Initiative (BIMSTEC) has been transformed into a unique “international legal entity”, Union Foreign Minister Rajkumar Ranjan Singh said on Saturday, adding that India’s Xiaomi diplomacy has the potential to resolve food crisis among member states

He also highlighted the leading role played by Kolkata in India’s “Act East” policy.

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“I am delighted to see BIMSTEC transform from a group of countries into a full-fledged regional organization focused on the vast area around the Bay of Bengal. Today, BIMSTEC has a unique international legal personality,” he said at the opening of the two-day BIMSTEC conference was commemorating its 25th anniversary at the opening ceremony of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

“This year is the year of millet, and our prime minister attaches great importance to it. It is a climate-resilient crop and its nutritional value is very high. Let us hope that by planting and promoting millet, the food shortage problem will be solved. Solved,” he added road.

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“It grows in all geography and requires less water. So let’s promote it and see how far it can go in solving food security problems,” he said at the two-day BIMSTEC 25th Anniversary said at the opening of the meeting. .

He called Calcutta “one of the most important cities in India strategically”, and in order to promote the “Act East and the East Policy”, he emphasized that Calcutta should be the main regional and regional leader leading the “Act East Policy”.

“The Indian government is committed to the regional organization of BIMSTEC. As a result, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has provided financial resources to the BIMSTEC Secretariat at the Sri Lanka Summit in 2022. BIMSTEC is now an effective regional organization in the Bay of Bengal,” He said.

“Given the post-pandemic economic challenges we all face, and the uncertainty in the international system caused by developments in Europe, regional action is needed more than ever,” he said.

He said that the political leadership of the BIMSTEC region is firmly committed to taking the BIMSTEC company to the next level.

“The main challenge for officials, policymakers and academics is to help the government identify policy activities that can be undertaken collectively and help BIMSTEC bring real development to its people,” he said.

BIMSTEC consists of 7 member countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand) which are located in or depend on the Bay of Bengal. During the last BIMSTEC summit hosted by Sri Lanka, leaders adopted and signed the BIMSTEC Charter, completing its evolution into a full-fledged regional organization with unique international legal personality.

India is fully committed to working with BIMSTEC member countries to advance the BIMSTEC regional cooperation agenda and build BIMSTEC into a dynamic regional organization for development and economic cooperation in the Bay of Bengal region.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, BIMSTEC Secretary General Tenzin Lekphell said: “BIMSTEC is promising as a platform for cooperation, our institutions, mechanisms and legal framework are becoming more concrete and mature. Ministerial meetings and senior officials’ meetings are increasingly interactive , participation and more regularity. Our leaders and their political will and commitment to BIMSTEC are also increasingly peaceful.”

BIMSTEC was established in June 1997 and was earlier named BIST-EC after its founding members Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

EC stands for Economic Cooperation. In December 1997, Myanmar joined the organization, thus expanding the acronym to BIMSTEC. In addition, as of February 2004, Nepal and Bhutan became full members.

The BIMSTEC headquarters was inaugurated in Dhaka in 2014 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh. In addition, in March 2022, at the fifth summit in Colombo, member states signed and adopted the BIMSTEC Charter, which became a milestone moment in the history of the organization.

Today, the operational objective of BIMSTEC is technical and economic cooperation among member countries.

The main focus of the initiative is “to achieve rapid development through the identification and implementation of specific cooperation projects in the fields of trade, investment and industry, technology, human resources development, tourism, agriculture, energy, infrastructure and transportation”. (Arnie)

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