Over the years, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooper a tion (BIMSTEC) has strengthened its pillars and mechanisms of cooperation including adoption of the Charter and consolidation of priority sectors into seven areas at the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit held in Colombo in March 2022. Besides consolidation, BIMSTEC has broadened its agenda of cooperation by identifying three more fields as sub-sectors including blue economy, mountain economy and poverty alleviation at the 19th Ministerial Meeting held on 9 March 2023.