Bay of Bengal nations resolve to face calamities together

An umbrella organization of Bay of Bengal nations says its members must leverage geographical advantage and other resources to address their post-pandemic vulnerabilities and collectively strengthen resilience to face future calamities

Sri Lanka BIMSTEC (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

An umbrella organization of seven Bay of Bengal nations says its members must urgently leverage geographical advantage and other resources to address their post-pandemic vulnerabilities and collectively strengthen resilience to face future calamities.

In a declaration on the last day of their three-day summit Wednesday, the group said the members resolve to work together to combat poverty, natural disasters, climate change, pandemics and transnational crime.

They also resolved to work toward food and energy security and strengthen their connections to grow trade, investment, tourism and technology and offset economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sri Lanka hosted the 5th summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Corporation in its national capital Colombo.

Leaders of the host country, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, India, Nepal and Thailand are scheduled to address the summit virtually. Six foreign ministers took part in an officials' meeting Tuesday but the foreign minister of Myanmar who was earlier scheduled to participate in the meeting joined virtually.

Thailand later takes over as BIMSTEC's chair nation.