Staff Reporter:
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly address the pressing non-traditional security concerns in the region and beyond.
The MoU was signed on the occasion of the Sixth BIMSTEC Summit held on April 4 in Bangkok, Thai-land, said a press release issued by the BIMSTEC secretariat in Dhaka, Bangladesh, yesterday.
BIMSTEC Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey and Regional Representative of UNODC Regional Of-fice for South Asia Anubha Sood inked the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations.
The signing of the MoU was welcomed by the BIMSTEC leaders, marking a significant step in deepen-ing inter-regional cooperation, said the release.
The MoU formalized the future partnership between UNODC and BIMSTEC in areas of shared interest, providing a framework of cooperation in facilitating collaboration to prevent and combat transnational organized crime, illicit drugs and terrorism in the Bay of Bengal region, it added.
BIMSTEC comprises seven countries– Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand– of the Bay of Bengal region.
It pursues regional cooperation in seven broad sectors– agriculture and food security, connectivity, envi-ronment and climate change, people-to-people contact, science, technology and innovation, security and trade and investment and development.
The cooperation also covers eight sub-sectors– blue economy, mountain economy, energy, disaster man-agement, fisheries and livestock, poverty alleviation, health, and human resource development.
UNODC is the UN entity mandated with addressing the challenges of drugs, organised crime, corruption and terrorism.
It helps the governments implement international treaties, monitor global developments, and design ef-fective laws, policies and interventions.
UNODC is present in around 150 countries, where it trains practitioners in justice, health, law enforce-ment, and other fields.
