India will provide the Fifth Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) secretariat with $1 million to expand its operational budget.

Announcing this while  addressing the BIMSTEC  summit virtually,  Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the international body to strengthen the grouping. In his intervention, the Prime Minister underscored the importance of enhanced BIMSTEC regional connectivity, cooperation and security, and made several suggestions in this regard.

He called upon fellow leaders to strive to transform Bay of Bengal into a Bridge of Connectivity, Prosperity, and Security among the BIMSTEC-member countries. "It is important to strengthen the capacity of (BIMSTEC) secretariat...I suggest the secretary-general create a roadmap for the same," the leader added.

The BIMSTEC  is a regional multilateral organisation wherein member states are located along the Bay of Bengal's coastline and neighbouring territories, working toward a regional unity.

The ongoing Summit is being organised by Sri Lanka, the current chair for BIMSTEC. "The recent developments in Europe have raised questions about the stability of the international order.

 In this context, it has become a greater priority to have regional cooperation", said the Prime  Minister  adding “We are adopting the BIMSTEC charter to develop institution architecture for our group." He said the Initiative is aiming to extend and expand the scope of the BIMSTEC scholarship programme offered by the Nalanda International University.

"We are also signing a treaty on mutual legal assistance on criminal matters," he said while declaring, "India will provide the (BIMSTEC) secretariat with 1 million US dollars to increase its operational budget...It is important to strengthen the capacity of the BIMSTEC secretariat...I suggest the Secretary-General create a roadmap for the same," he said.

"The time has come to make the Bay of Bengal the bridge of connectivity, prosperity and security. I call on all BIMSTEC nations to dedicate themselves to working with new enthusiasm to achieve the goals we achieved together in 1997," he said.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand are members of BIMSTEC, a regional multilateral organisation.

The BIMSTEC summit is being  held in the backdrop  of the ongoing  Russia-Ukraine  conflict and is of  major significance in relation to the global consequence of military offensives in the eastern European country and a number of economic sanctions against Russia.

Modi along with other leaders also witnessed the signing of three BIMSTEC agreements which represent progress being achieved in ongoing cooperation activities-BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, BIMSTEC Memorandum of Understanding on Mutual Cooperation in the field of Diplomatic Training and  Memorandum of Association on Establishment of BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility.

Later, in a tweet, Modi  said several important decisions were taken to further the BIMSTEC cooperation agenda. He commended the able leadership of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and extended his best wishes to the incoming chair Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha.