Kolkata, 26March : Honorable Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs, Rajkumar Ranajan Singh, after inaugurating the two-day BIMSTEC meet marking its 25th Anniversary, on 25th March stressed on India’s Millet diplomacy to solve food crisis among the member nations and East and North East of the country to become leaders in diplomatic strategy for the region.
Speaking at the inaugural session of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Mr Singh said “This is the Year of the Millet and our Prime Minister has given much importance to it. This is a climate resilient crop and its nutrition value is very high. Let us hope that food deficiency by way of cultivation and popularization of millet can be addressed. It grows in all geographic condition and needs less water. So let us promote it and see how far it goes to solve the problem of food security.”
“Kolkata is strategically one of the most prominent cities of India and for promotion of East and Act East policy Kolkata should be the prime area and the regional head to lead the Act East policy,” he said while talking about the importance given to East in taking forward the BIMSTEC agenda.
He was delighted to see the growing importance of BIMSTEC and said: “I am very happy to see BIMSTEC’s transformations from a grouping of countries into a full-fledged regional organization focused on broad region around the Bay Of Bengal. Today, BIMSTEC has a distinct international legal personality.”
“Given the post covid economic challenges, that are being faced by all of us and also the uncertainties in the international system due to developments in Europe, requires regional action more than ever before. The political leadership in the BIMSTEC region, is firmly committed to taking BIMSTEC corporation to the next level. The main challenges before official, policy makers, and scholars like yourself is to help governments identify activities for policies that can be collectively undertaken and help BIMSTEC deliver real developments for its people,” he said. //
Speaking at the inaugural session, BIMSTEC Secretary General Tenzin Lekphell said, “The conference is taking place soon after the 19th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting, which was held earlier this month, a year after the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit held in Colombo, and later in the year we are going to conduct the 6th BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok. The BIMSTEC areas of cooperation has also been reformed by rationalizing 14 areas of cooperation into seven sectors and subsectors of cooperation, and each member country has been given the mandate or the responsibility to lead a sector and thereby building ownership and ensuring a better local cooperation. The BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, MoU on Mutual Cooperation between Diplomatic Academies, MoU on the Establishment of BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility in Colombo and the Adoption of BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity shows that BIMSTEC is on the right track. Further, and most recently, the 19th Ministerial Meeting has also approved the BIMSTEC Maritime Transport Cooperation Agreement, which will significantly benefit the Member States as it will give free access to boats and enhance trade and transportation of goods and cargo between the member states.”
Earlier, while giving his welcome address, Mr Arindam Mukherjee, Director ISCS, said, “This conference has been designed to address all the persisting issues and challenges in the BIMSTEC with a country wise representation and perspective. Not only is this program a blueprint for what policies can be implemented but also a highlight of what have not worked in the past and can be made better for the future endeavour. The interactive sessions have domain experts whose opinions can be instrumental in making the institution of BIMSTEC think about more areas to explore and more projects to undertake.”
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