Millet diplomacy, regional cooperation, proposal for BIMSTEC Games and University for better people to people connect and focusing on Kolkata as the nodal centre for India's Act East were some of the major points raised during the two day BIMSTEC conference held in Kolkata on the occasion its 25th anniversary.

On the opening day of the meet, Honorable Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Rajkumar Ranajan Singh, after inaugurating the two-day BIMSTEC meet, stressed on India's Millet diplomacy to solve food crisis among the member nations and East and North East of the country to become leaders in diplomatic strategy for the region.

Speaking at the inaugural session of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Mr. Singh said "This is the Year of the Millet and our Prime Minister has given much importance to it. This is a climate resilient crop and its nutrition value is very high. Let us hope that food deficiency by way of cultivation and popularization of millet can be addressed. It grows in all geographic condition and needs less water. So let us promote it and see how far it goes to solve the problem of food security. Kolkata is strategically one of the most prominent cities of India and for promotion of East and Act East policy Kolkata should be the prime area and the regional head to lead the Act East policy," he said while talking about the importance given to East in taking forward the BIMSTEC agenda.

Director ISCS Arindam Mukherjee read out the Kolkata Declaration based on the deliberations of the two days and hoped the issues raised would help in mitigating problems and further advance regional cooperation.