The 13th ministerial meeting of BIMSTEC concluded in Myanmar Saturday also decided to provide Sri Lanka the opportunity to become the first general secretary of the regional body.[break]
The differences over where to set up the Secretariat had surfaced after both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh demanded to set up the office in their respective countries.
“The BIMSTEC meeting has decided to set up its secretariat in Bangladesh,” said Joint Secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Dhananjaya Jha. “The row that had been continuing for the past five years has come to an end now.”
A meeting of seven BIMSTEC member countries (Nepal, India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand) held in Sri Lanka in the second week of December had formed two separate mechanisms to resolve the issue.
As per the understanding, the country relinquishing claim for secretariat would get to have its first general secretary of the body. And if there was no agreement between the two countries, the member countries had decided to go for voting to end the row.
Joint Secretary Jha, who returned home on Sunday after taking part in the 13th ministerial meeting of BIMSTEC, said they would not need to go for voting as the two countries had reached an agreement. Sri Lanka had given up its claim for secretariat. It was agreed that the secretariat would be set up in Bangladesh it hosts embassies of all BIMSTEC countries.
A new sub-regional grouping named BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation) was formed on June 6, 1997. The name was changed to BIMST-EC after Myanmar, which attended the inaugural June meeting as an observer, joined the organization as a full member at a Special Ministerial Meeting held in Bangkok on December 22, 1997.
Nepal was granted observer status by the second ministerial meeting of BIMSTEC held in Dhaka in December 1998. Nepal along with Bhutan was subsequently granted full membership of the sub-regional body in 2004.
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