Connectivity to build Bimstec bridges: Modi
KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled specific commitments to reiterate his vision of the Bay of Bengal as an interconnected region that sits at the confluence of his government’s two key foreign policy priorities: neighbourhood first and the Act East policy.
Addressing his first Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) summit, Modi said: “I believe there is a big opportunity for connectivity — trade connectivity, economic connectivity, transport connectivity, digital connectivity and people-to-people connectivity.”
The Bimstec leaders also agreed to enhance counter-terror cooperation and to hold a meeting of their home ministers to discuss issues. “There is no nation that is not affected by terrorism and its network,” Modi said.
Modi’s views were echoed by other leaders of the 21-year-old grouping of seven states that accounts for 22% of the world population, with the chair of the summit, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, saying that “connectivity is key for robust regional cooperation”.
Oli also said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooper- ation (Saarc) and Bimstec “don’t substitute, but complement each other”.
Taking the podium after the leaders of Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan, Modi emphasised the importance of the grouping for India, and announced several commitments aimed at boosting regional connectivity and bringing together the grouping’s members for their shared interests.
They included a Bimstec start-up conclave, hosting a ministerial of the grouping coinciding with the Indian mobile congress with the theme “New Digital Horizons Connect, Create, Innovate”, which New Delhi will hold later this year to build on innovative ideas, and a hackathon for youngsters of the region on blue economy.