Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said the coming together of seven countries in the BIMSTEC grouping was shedding narrow definitions of geographical definitions and listed trade, energy, connectivity and people-to-people exchange as priority areas to build upon.
"In coming together, we are not only stepping out of narrow, traditional definitions of regions such as South Asia or Southeast Asia, but we are also building a bridge across Asia's most promising and dynamic arc," the prime minister told the BIMTEC Summit in this Myanmar capital.
"Today, as connectivity and integration across a fragmented Asia are becoming the new vehicles for advancing peace and prosperity in the region, BIMSTEC is one of the more promising examples of such initiatives," he added.
Manmohan Singh said even as the region faced many common challenges such as from natural disasters and terrorism, it also shared many opportunities in areas as such as trade, economic cooperation and connectivity, all of which signaled a bright future.
(Arvind Padmanabhan can be contacted at arvind.p@ians.in)
