No Agreement on Joint Military Exercise During BIMSTEC Summit: Nepal FM

Kathmandu, Sep 5 (PTI) Nepal said on Wednesday that there was no discussion held or agreement reached during the recently concluded 4th BIMSTEC summit on holding a joint military exercise of the member states.

Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali said the matter of holding joint military exercise has not been incorporated in any mechanism of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit hosted by Nepal on August 30 and 31 in Kathmandu.

The BIMSTEC is a regional grouping comprising India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. The grouping accounts for 22 per cent of the global population, and has a combined gross domestic product of USD 2.8 trillion.

Briefing the International Relations Committee under the House of Representatives regarding the agenda endorsed by the BIMSTEC Summit, Gyawali said the Summit did not dwell on the issue of holding the joint military exercise as reported in the media.

Addressing the inaugural session of the Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed to host a joint military exercise in India in the second week of September.

Responding to the queries of the lawmakers who had raised concern in the Parliament Committee meeting regarding India's proposal to host the joint military exercise, Gyawali said, "the issue of the joint military exercise did not enter in any of the three layers of meetings of the BIMSTEC (the Special SOM, ministerial-level and the Summit)."

Senior leader of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal and International Relations Committee member Bhim Bahadur Rawal said, "such type of joint military exercise would be against the ideals and spirit of BIMSTEC."

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