The foreign secretaries will discuss the new timeframe and modalities of the 5th BIMSTEC Summit and the 17th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting. Earlier, the fifth BIMSTEC Summit and the Seventeenth BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting scheduled for September 3-4, 2020, in Colombo were postponed due to the prevailing situation arising from Covid-19 pandemic. “If physical summit appears to be difficult under the circumstances, member states could consider the possibility of holding virtual summit within this year,” said M Shahidul Islam, secretary general of BIMSTEC. With the holding of the 5th BIMSTEC Summit, the chairmanship of the organization will go to Thailand. The meeting will also finalize some important agreements and documents, including the BIMSTEC Charter, envisaged to be signed or launched at the 5th BIMSTEC Summit.

Source: Dhaka Tribune August 10, 2020 11:03 UTC