India, Bangladesh and Nepal on March 8 finalised an enabling 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 enabling MoU to be signed by India, Bangladesh and Nepal to implement the BBIN MVA was finalised at a meeting held in New Delhi during March 7-8.
- Bhutan participated in the meeting as an observer.
- The MoU was finalised “pending ratification of the MVA by Bhutan”.
Basic Facts
- The Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (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. It was mainly because of opposition from Pakistan.
- However, the project suffered a setback in 2017 when Bhutan temporarily opted out of it after being unable to get parliamentary approval for the agreement.
- The BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement for the Regulation of Passenger, Personal and Cargo Vehicular Traffic between the four countries was signed during a transport ministers’ meeting in Thimpu (Bhutan) on June 15, 2015.
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