Sri Lanka wholly with BIMSTEC against terrorism and organised crime - President

“Sri Lanka wholeheartedly supports the BIMSTEC Convention on Cooperation in Combating International Terrorism, Organised Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking as an important and vital milestone in our efforts to counter terrorism,” said President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He was addressing the second Summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), in New Delhi last week.

“Terrorist groups are able to sustain themselves by illegal fundraising, narcotics and people trafficking, money laundering using international networks, and arms and ammunition smuggling including through the sea routes in the Bay of Bengal. I urge you to consider setting up a mechanism to effectively police the seas of the Bay of Bengal, to deny these terrorists mobility and connectivity.

The President said, “For over two decades, Sri Lanka has been facing a tremendous challenge to our democratic way of life through the barbaric actions of a terrorist group, the LTTE.

There is no doubt that such groups have to be dealt with militarily. At the same time Sri Lanka believes that any underlying causes, exploited by the terrorists in an attempt to seek legitimacy for their operations, should be dealt with politically. I wish to assure this august gathering that we are firmly on the path to a political solution.”

“While the BIMSTEC nations have constructively and prudently engaged in the process of globalisation, nevertheless the economic challenges faced by many of our major trading partners, will inevitably have some impact on our own pace of growth.

The situation has therefore made all of us very much aware of the protection that regional self-reliance can afford, against global economic uncertainties.”

Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said that BIMSTEC has mooted setting up of a food bank to help needy member states.

“An idea was mooted that countries pool their part of resources and set up a food bank for needy countries whenever necessary,” he told a press conference after the BIMSTEC Summit in India.

He said the member countries discussed the role of cooperation with regard to research and extension facilities in which countries of BIMSTEC can cooperate with each other.

He said there was extensive discussion on issues relating to food security to ensure food security. The Prime Minister said the leaders discussed two aspects how to increase agriculture production and productivity, which are fundamental to solve the problem of food scarcity.

He said the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) decided to concentrate on 13 sectors including trade and investment, transport and communication, energy, agriculture, tourism, public health, counter-terrorism, environment and natural disasters and people-to-people contact.

Referring to these identified areas of cooperation, he said all BIMSTEC nations would benefit from joint thinking, exchange of best practices and learning from each other’s experiences in these areas.

“If cooperation in all these areas grow then all countries of the BIMSTEC region would benefit,” he said.

Dr. Singh said the BIMSTEC Summit had “nearly completed work” in four areas of cooperation on which formal agreements would be signed soon. These were a convention on combating international terrorism, trans-national organised crime and illegal drug trafficking, Memoranda of Association on setting up of a BIMSTEC Engineering Centre and a weather and climate centre in India and a cultural observatory in Bhutan.

Replying to a question, the Prime Minister said the global crisis, which originated from the USA and Europe, had affected the developing world but had a “relatively less” impact.

“We are affected, though relatively less than the banking and financial sector of the developed countries,” Dr Singh said.

“Our banks are relatively well-regulated. They have adequate capital-asset ratio. Therefore, there is no danger to the health of financial system in the BIMSTEC region,” he said.