9 Ministerial Meeting of BIMSTEC on Aug 9

New Delhi, Aug 7: The Ninth Ministerial Meeting of the six-nation Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMST-EC) will be held here on August 9.

The Indian delegation will be led by Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed.

Delegations from the other BIMST-EC countries--Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand--are also expected to be led by their Foreign Ministers.

The Ministerial meeting will be preceded by the 11th BIMST-EC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) on August eight.

The Indian delegation at the SOM will be led by Mr Rajiv Sikri, Secretary(East).

The two meetings on August eight and nine will, inter alia, prepare for the Second BIMST-EC Summit that will be hosted by India early next year.

The meeting will also review progress on various priority sectors since the last BIMST-EC Ministerial Meeting held in Dhaka in December 2005.

UNI