Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage, chairing the 21st Session of the Senior Officials’ Meeting (SoM), urged BIMSTEC Member States to embrace the “new normal, and adapt fast”.

In his inaugural remarks at the first virtual meeting held on 2 September 2020, in Colombo, he stated that global dynamics will not be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic as it has affected all States, in various degrees, as it transformed from a health crisis to an economic and human crisis as described by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

In fact, he stated that the crisis has affected the very fabric of daily life of BIMSTEC Member States as economic activities have slowed down with global and regional value chains disrupted, millions of people have lost their jobs with many pushed into poverty.

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