New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to attend the 5th BIMSTEC Summit on Wednesday.

The Summit Meeting, which is being held in virtual mode, will be hosted by Sri Lanka, the current BIMSTEC chair.

To prepare for the Summit, meetings of BIMSTEC Senior Officials (SOM) took place on March 28 followed by meetings of the BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers (BMM) on March 29.

"The Covid pandemic related challenges, and the uncertainties within the international system that all BIMSTEC members are facing, imparts greater urgency to the goal of taking BIMSTEC technical and economic cooperation to the next level. This is expected to be the main subject of deliberations by Leaders at the Summit," the Ministry of External (MEA) said in a press release.

The leaders are also expected to discuss the establishment of basic institutional structures and mechanisms of the group.

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar today concluded a "productive and congenial" BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting. "Thank you FM Prof GL Peiris for the excellent arrangements," Jaishankar tweeted.

Jaishankar participated in the 18th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Colombo and emphasized the grouping's commitment to intensify and expand areas of cooperation especially connectivity, energy and maritime ties among the member countries.

The 'Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)' is a regional multilateral organisation. Its members lie in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal, constituting a contiguous regional unity. The members include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.