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India, Bangladesh and Nepal on Tuesday finalised a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for implementing the long-gestating Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) that is aimed at boosting regional trade and connectivity.
The BBIN connectivity project was conceived after the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) failed to agree on a regional motor vehicles agreement at a summit in Nepal in 2014, mainly because of opposition from Pakistan, reports The Hindustan Times.
The BBIN project suffered a setback in 2017 when Bhutan temporarily opted out of it after being unable to get parliamentary approval for the MVA. The 3 other countries decided at the time to press ahead with the agreement.
That India, Bangladesh and Nepal are going to sign the BBIN MVA Mou was finalised at a meeting held in New Delhi in March 7-8. During the meeting Bhutan participated as an observer. The MoU was finalised “pending ratification of the MVA by Bhutan”, according to the external affairs ministry.
“Recalling the commitments made at the highest level for implementation of the BBIN MVA, the delegations expressed their desire to sign the MoU at the earliest to give momentum to the implementation,” the ministry said in a statement.
The countries emphasised the importance of speedily operationalising the MVA to “enable seamless movement between them for facilitating trade and people-to-people contact”. The conclusion of passenger and cargo protocols to operationalise the MVA will also help realise the full potential of trade and people-to-people connectivity between BBIN countries by fostering greater sub-regional cooperation.
