The 15th BIMSTEC ministerial meeting was held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 11 August.
The 18th session of the BIMSTEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) was held after this meeting.
BIMSTEC
Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is the sub-regional grouping comprising seven countries of South Asia and South East Asia. These are: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
On 6 June 1997, a new sub-regional grouping was formed in Bangkok and given the name BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Later Myanmar and Nepal joined this group, after which the organisation was renamed as BIMSTEC
Nepal is the current Chair of the BIMSTEC. Its Secretariat is located in Dhaka.