Nepal to join BIMSTEC military exercise in India next month

Kathmandu : Nepal will join the first ever military exercise of the countries in the BIMSTEC, or Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, to be hosted by India next month, a spokesman of the Nepali Army Headquarters said here on Wednesday.

Gokul Bhandari, spokesman of the Nepali Army, told Xinhua that 30 army soldiers of Nepal will join the military exercise to be held from September 10-16 in Pune of the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

"We are expecting the exercise will be helpful in sharing best practices in the area of counter-terrorism," Bhandari said.

BIMSTEC was founded in 1997, and groups India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Nepal, which is currently the chair of the regional organization, had announced last month it would hold the fourth summit of the BIMSTEC on August 30 and 31 in Kathmandu.