Summary:
New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat on Tuesday suggested setting up of information sharing mechanism among the BIMSTEC nations for better defence cooperation among their security agencies.
In his address at an event organised ahead of a BIMSTEC disaster relief exercise, he also pitched for a united approach by the member nations of the grouping in preparing for likely future challenges such as pandemics, natural disasters and biological warfare.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) comprises India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.
India has been making concerted efforts to make BIMSTEC a vibrant forum for regional cooperation as initiatives under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) were not moving forward for a variety of reasons.
Referring to the new coronavirus variant Omicron, Gen Rawat wondered whether it will again mutate into something else and said the countries should act together to overcome pandemics.
"Is this also becoming the new kind of warfare and if this is the future warfare and that if biological warfare is somehow beginning to take shape, then once again I think the BIMSTEC nations need to act together and strengthen our efforts to make sure that our nations do not get affected by such kind of disease and virus," he said.