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 “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.”
Echoing the same sentiments, Dr Yogesh Gokhale, Senior Fellow and Area Convenor, Centre for Forest Management and Governance Land; Resources Division, The Energy and Resource Institute, said: “At the 13th Session of BIMSTEC senior officials’ meeting in 2009, climate change was added to the governing priority and in the successive meeting the commitment for climate action was upheld and strengthened.
