On 29 March 2022, H.E. Don Pramudwinai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs attended the 17th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which is held under the theme “It’s New Dawn, And New Day” reflected the ongoing recovery of the Bay of Bengal Region which encompasses 22% of the global population in 7 high potential countries in South and Southeast Asia: Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.

The Ministers resolved to expand and intensify BIMSTEC collaboration in view to enhancing the region as region of peace and sustainability, and submitted key outcome documents for the adoption by the leaders at the 5th BIMSTEC summit on 30 March 2022, including the BIMSTEC Charter and the BIMSTEC Master Plan on Transport Connectivity.

At the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed the importance of the region for the security, stability and prosperity of Asia and reiterated Thailand’s readiness to assume the BIMSTEC chairmanship from Sri Lanka. He reaffirmed Thailand’s commitment to advance BIMSTEC cooperation in the spirit of solidarity in key areas, such as BCG economy, connectivity, trade facilitation and BIMSTEC’s contribution to regional geostrategic architecture.