YANGON — Myanmar President U Win Myint vowed active cooperation in combatting terrorism and drug trafficking in the region while speaking at the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu.
“Myanmar has been encountering the scourge of terrorism,” President U Win Myint said, addressing the opening ceremony of the summit on Thursday.
Therefore, Myanmar attaches great importance to counter-terrorism and trans-national crime and assures its continued active cooperation under the BIMSTEC framework, he added.
Myanmar ratified the 2009 BIMSTEC Convention on Combating International Terrorism, Transnational Organized Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking on July 5, 2016.
The BIMSTEC, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, is a seven-member group comprised of Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal as member countries—which together accounts for 22 percent of the global population.
President U Win Myint said at the summit in Nepal that the region won’t be an exception while one of the daunting challenges of the world is to ensure food and nutrition security for the rapidly growing population.
He announced that Myanmar would hold the first BIMSTEC ministerial meeting on Agriculture in this fiscal year to address the emerging challenges.
President U Win Myint called for the further enhancement of cooperation in ensuring food security, energy trading, unlocking socio-economic development, poverty alleviation and promoting trade and investments among the member states.
“Despite significant achievements of the member states, poverty still remains a challenge for all of us,” he said.
He stressed the need of effective and efficient cooperation in implementing the region’s priority projects, as all cooperation areas will not be feasible for BIMSTEC due to financial and resources constraints.
At the conclusion of the two-day summit, the seven member states on Friday signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection on Friday for the trading of electricity.
