KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is scheduled to virtually address the Fifth Summit of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) taking place in Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 30.

The Nepali delegation led by the Prime Minister includes Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Narayan Khadka, Principal Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister Bhan Bahadur Deuba, Chief Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi, Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal and senior officials from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Minister Khadka will however physically participate in the Eighteenth BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting to be held on March 29, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday. On the sidelines, he is slated to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from BIMSTEC member states. To participate in the meeting, he will leave for Colombo on March 28 and will return to Kathmandu on March 31.

Similarly, the Nepali delegation led by Joint Secretary and Head of the Regional Organization Division at the Ministry, Ghanshyam Bhandari, will physically participate in the Twenty-Second BIMSTEC Senior Officials’ Meeting on March 28.

The Summit and its preceding meetings are being held in Colombo on 28 – 30 March in a hybrid mode. The theme of the Summit this year is ‘BIMSTEC – Towards a Resilient Region, Prosperous Economies, Healthy Peoples’.