National
PM Oli lauds success of summit
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali lauded the success of the Fourth BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu that concluded on Friday.Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali lauded the success of the Fourth BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu that concluded on Friday.
In his closing statement, the PM stressed the need for regional cooperation citing that today’s complex problems cannot be resolved with the efforts of an individual country alone.
“In the world that is witnessing multiple contradictions and uncertainties, our resolve to strengthen regionalism as a building block to multilateralism bears a particular significance towards a stable, predictable and rule-based world order,” PM Oli said, adding that during the Summit, the member states made a comprehensive review of the progress made and agreed to a future course of action to accelerate the process of regional cooperation.
“The Summit has been a significant step towards making BIMSTEC a dynamic, effective and result-oriented regional organisation. It has reinvigorated the BIMSTEC process to realise the vast potentials that are available in the region,” said Oli.
Prime Minister Oli reminded that enhancing connectivity, fostering trade and investment, promoting cooperation on energy and tourism are among the key decisions taken to achieve this goal. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection will facilitate greater cooperation in energy sector, he said.
Foreign Minister Gyawali also stated that the summit was a huge success where Nepal pushed for greater economy, ecological conservation, sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
The minister further said the member states promised to contribute to the BIMSTEC Development Fund as per their capacity and the Fund would be used to implement research-based and pilot projects.
“Nepal is the place of origin of Buddhism and Nepal has its concern over the proposed Buddha Circuit,” he said.
In his response to the issues of Bhutanese refugee, the Foreign Minister said, “We have some issues with Bhutan but will work on it after a new Bhutanese government is established.”
Prayut Chan-o- cha (Ret.), Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, gifted symbolic medicines and medical equipment worth 1.5 million US Dollars to the people of Nepal at the bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Oli on Friday. Thailand had committed the medical equipment to Nepal after the earthquake.