Indra Mani Pandey is BIMSTEC’s Secretary General

• Ambassador Indra Mani Pandey, a senior diplomat of India, assumed the position of Secretary General (SG) of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
• He succeeded Tenzin Lekphell of Bhutan, is the 4th SG of BIMSTEC and will remain in office for a period of three years.

ABOUT BIMSTEC

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization that was established on 06 June 1997 with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration.
• Initially known as BIST-EC (Bangladesh-India-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation), the organisation is now known as BIMSTEC and comprises seven Member States, with admission of Myanmar in 1997 and Bhutan and Nepal in 2004.
• The BIMSTEC Secretariat was established in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2014.
• The BIMSTEC Charter was signed and adopted during the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit held in virtual format in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2022.