New Delhi, Mar 28: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be enhancing India's deep civilizational linkages, maritime connectivity, and cross-cultural exchanges with member countries of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) grouping during his visit to Bangkok for the 6th BIMSTEC Summit , next week.

This would include the signing of a Maritime Transport Agreement with the BIMSTEC countries at the summit which will be held in the capital of Thailand from April 2-4.

Established in June 1997, the BIMSTEC regional grouping forms a unique link between South and South-East Asia with five members from South Asia - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka - and two from South-East Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand.

"India is very strongly committed to increasing connectivity within BIMSTEC because a lot of things that we want to do in terms of regional integration are tied up with connectivity. While the connectivity blueprint has already been adopted, it is its implementation that has to be discussed now. We are going to be signing a Maritime Transport Agreement with the BIMSTEC countries at this Summit which will be a big step forward," said Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East) at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) during a media briefing in New Delhi on Friday.

This would be the first physical meeting of the BIMSTEC leaders since the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2018. The last BIMSTEC Summit was hosted by Colombo in virtual format. The 6th Summit's theme is 'BIMSTEC – Prosperous, Resilient and Open'. The Leaders are expected to deliberate on ways and means to infuse greater momentum to BIMSTEC cooperation during the Summit.

"The leaders are also expected to discuss various institution and capacity building measures to augment collaboration within the BIMSTEC framework. India has been taking a number of initiatives in BIMSTEC to strengthen regional cooperation and partnership, including in enhancing security; facilitating trade and investment; establishing physical, maritime and digital connectivity; collaborating in food, energy, climate and human security; promoting capacity building and skill development; and enhancing people-to-people ties," read a statement issued by the MEA.

On the bilateral front, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to have a meeting with the Prime Minister of Thailand on April 3. During the meeting, the two Prime Ministers are expected to review bilateral cooperation and chart the way for future partnership between the countries. India and Thailand are maritime neighbours with shared civilizational bonds which are underpinned by cultural, linguistic, and religious ties.

This would be the second meeting between PM Modi and Thailand Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

"Our bilateral ties are multifaceted and over a range of joint cooperation from defence and security to trade and investment, connectivity, science and technology, innovation, education, space, health, culture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges," Secretary Mazumdar stated.

Besides BIMSTEC, the cooperation between India and Thailand exists further in various other multilateral forums like ASEAN, East Asia Summit, Mekong Ganga Cooperation, and Indian Ocean Rim Association.

"On the economic front, Thailand is the third largest economy in ASEAN and our fourth largest trading partner after Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia in the region. The bilateral trade stands at almost $15 billion, with exports to Thailand being $ 5 billion and imports $10 billion," said Mazumdar.

Reaffirming the age-old cultural and religious ties, India recently sent the holy relics of Lord Buddha and two of his main disciples for a 25-day exposition across five different cities of Thailand. The unprecedented success of this exposition cemented age-old ties between the two nations as around four million people paid their obeisance to the relics between February 25 to March 9.

--IANS

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