BANGKOK (AP) — Leaders of nations in the Bay of Bengal region pledged to improve trade and transport cooperation as they concluded a summit in Bangkok on Friday.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the seven nations also agreed to increase natural disaster relief efforts after an earthquake last week killed more than 3,000 people in Myanmar and Thailand.
The leaders also expressed their “condolences, solidarity, and commitment to supporting the affected countries” in a joint statement on the earthquake, the Thai leader and meeting chair said.
The meetings faced controversy by the attendance of the head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who has been shunned by many countries over his 2021 takeover and the brutal oppression that followed.
He has not been allowed to participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, another regional grouping to which Myanmar belongs, and his opponents have called on BIMSTEC to refrain from engaging with him.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, members are Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
It was Min Aung Hlaing’s first visit to a country other than his government’s main supporters and backers — China, Russia and Russian ally Belarus — since he attended a regional meeting in Indonesia in 2021.
Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said Paetongtarn had a bilateral meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, and that they discussed relief efforts for the earthquake and cooperation on border security, especially on issues of illegal trade, drugs smuggling and online scams.
Other leaders attending the summit are Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser to the Bangladesh government, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Thailand postponed the meetings last year, after then-Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was removed from office by a court order. Thailand has now handed the group’s chairmanship to Bangladesh.
___________
