State Minister of Foreign Affairs Vasantha Senanayake was a panelist of the discussion titled 'Towards a Bay of Bengal Community: Development, Growth & Security', on 18th January 2018, at the Raisina Dialogue 2018, held in New Delhi from 16-18 January. The panel was moderated by Baijayant Panda, Member of Parliament of India, and other speakers included Preeti Saran, Secretary, (East), Ministry of External Affairs, and Shankar Das Bairagi, Foreign Secretary of Nepal.
Opening the Panel Discussion, Bhaijant Panda noted that BIMSTEC serves as a bridge between SAARC & ASEAN nations. He said that it is a platform to fulfill key foreign policy objectives, and that the growth rate of the BIMSTEC nations is 6%. These nations constitute 2.6% of global trade, he added.
In his opening remarks, State Minister Vasantha Senanayake stated that the Bay of Bangal region is the least integrated regions in the world and that BIMSTEC has the potential to pool in strengths from both South and Southeast Asia. He further said that as much as we have become competitive in the asian century, we need physical connectivity, institutional connectivity, information connectivity and trade and investment facilitators to integrate each group in the Bay of Bengal region. He stressed that there are both security and non security threats in the region that have to be addressed through a strategic framework.
The Foreign Secretary of Nepal said that, BIMSTEC has great potential to realise high growth trajectory of the region and contribute towards an 'asian century'. He further stated that key areas of priorities include trade, energy and security.
Responding to a question raised by the audience, State Minister Senanayake noted that the fact that each country is at different stage of economic growth has been the main difficulty faced by the region. He added that it is necessary to think of BIMSTEC beyond borders and that BIMSTEC should emulate the ASEAN model of betterment of the entire membership.
High Commission of Sri Lanka
New Delhi
24 January 2018
