Colombo, March 30: The hybrid summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) held here on March 30, made two significant advances in its 25-year history.
Firstly, it finalized the organization’s charter and secondly it drew up a master plan for connectivity, the Indian External Affairs Minister Dr.S.Jaishankar told Indian media personnel here on Wednesday. “It is a big step,” he said.
BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Thailand and Myanmar
BIMSTEC had assumed importance in the region after SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) was stymied by the Pakistan factor, the Indian minister pointed out. BIMSTEC is fulfilling a felt need, he added.
Jaishankar said that credit was due to the Sri Lankan government for organizing the summit in a way that made the above mentioned advances possible.
On India-Sri Lanka bilateral relations, Jaishankar said that there have been ups and downs for a variety of reasons. India is aware of the complexity of the situation in Sri Lanka and is approaching it from the position of a good neighbor in a non-political manner, he said.
India has rolled out financial help to Sri Lanka to tide over the forex crisis and is doing so on an urgent basis, getting things done in days that would take weeks under normal circumstances, the External Affairs Minister said. To see that the disbursal of US$ 1 billion for the import of essential commodities takes place quickly, the Managing Director of the State Bank of India was summoned to work on the details.
Jaishankar denied news reports that Sri Lanka had requested a further US$ 1 billion.
On the long-pending Indian projects, the External Affairs Minister said that India has been trying to convince Sri Lankan officials that it would be in their own interest to implement these projects. He had conveyed that India would be ready to invest in Sri Lanka.
Asked about the criticism in Sri Lanka that some key private sector Indian projects were secured circumventing due procedure, Jaishankar said that the government of India had nothing to do with the private sector projects.
On India’s help to the beleaguered fishermen of the Northern Province, the minister said that India has announced a plan or the development of harbors in the island nation, the majority of which would be in the Tamil-majority Northern province.
On his discussions with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Jaishankar said that he had advised them to set their sights on “achievable targets in the short term.” But that would not be the “end of the conversation,” he clarified.
Asked whether India is concerned about China’s increasing footprint in the island nation, Jaishankar said that India’s relations with Sri Lanka are unrelated to that because Indo-Lankan relations are “of a different order” altogether.
On the “India Out” movement in the Maldives, the Minister said that he himself saw the goodwill the common people of Maldives had for India when he visited Addu recently. School children had come to see him showing local enthusiasm for India, he said.
