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. Gen Rawat highlighted the importance of drawing common legal frameworks and setting up information sharing mechanism to facilitate defence cooperation between security and judicial agencies of the member nations. He was addressing the curtain raiser event for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise -- PANEX-21. The exercise is planned to be conducted from December 20-22 in Pune and will witness participation from subject matter experts and delegates from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand, the defence ministry said. In his address, Army Chief Gen M M Naravane said the emergence of the new variant and the resurgence of COVID-19 cases indicate that the fight is far from over. "A range of aggravating factors such as climate change, unplanned urbanisation, underdevelopment, poverty as well as the threat of the pandemics will result in an increased frequency, complexity and severity of disasters in the future," Gen Naravane said. "I would like to highlight that during the ongoing pandemic situation, the Indian armed forces were fully engaged in the whole-of-government efforts to provide the necessary support. Due to our wide footprint, we were quick to reach the remotest parts of our country," he said. Speaking at the event, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt drew the attention of the participants to the significance attached by India to the BIMSTEC as part of its "Neighbourhood First" policy. PTI MPB SMN SMN