Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to attend the 4th Bimstec Summit, scheduled to be held on August 30-31 in Kathmandu, Nepal, an official said 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, during which several bilateral meetings are likely to take place on the sidelines of the summit, the official told UNB, adding that the Rohingya issue, among others, will come up for discussion in informal setting.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to hold a bilateral meeting with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi after the summit's formal inauguration, said a diplomatic source, although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have yet to confirm it.
On August 4, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to attend the Bimstec Summit to be held in Nepal during a 10-minute phone conversation.
Bimstec Secretary General M Shahidul Islam also met Nepali prime minister at Baluwatar recently.
The Nepali premier highlighted the need to have concrete outcomes from the Bimstec process for the benefit of the people in the region.
The host country said the upcoming summit must assess its role of past 20 years and chart out the plan of action with time-bound targets for the future course of action in order to have positive impacts in the region.
Friday, March 21, 2025
