Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering thanked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, for sharing Covid-19 vaccines with its neighbours. Speaking at the 5th BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Corporation) Summit, Tshering said that the vaccines shared by India provided much-needed protection from coronavirus disease.

“I would like to thank PM Modi for sharing Covid vaccines with us, it provided the much-needed protection from Covid-19. More than 90% of our citizens are vaccinated, protection of everyone is still our priority,” Tshering said.

Sri Lanka hosted the summit in its national capital Colombo where the umbrella organization of seven Bay of Bengal nations stressed the need to urgently leverage geographical advantage and other resources to address their post-pandemic vulnerabilities.

Leaders of the host country, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, India, Nepal and Thailand addressed the summit virtually. The foreign ministers of the seven countries are representing their leaders at the summit. 

Speaking on the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the recent developments in Europe have raised questions about the stability of the international order. He added that regional cooperation has become a greater priority amid the uncertainties due to the ongoing war.

“Today we are adopting the BIMSTEC charter to develop institution architecture for our group,” Modi told the virtual summit.

“The time has come to make the Bay of Bengal the bridge of connectivity, prosperity and security. I call on all BIMSTEC nations to dedicate themselves to working with new enthusiasm to achieve the goals we achieved together in 1997.”

Modi announced that India India will provide the BIMSTEC secretariat with one million US dollars to increase its operational budget. Highlighting the importance of strengthening the capacity of the BIMSTEC secretariat, he suggested the Secretary-General create a roadmap for the same.

(SAM)