Towards strengthening regional trade and connectivity, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal signed an enabling Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Tuesday to implement the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA).
The connectivity faced hindrance in 2017 when Bhutan temporarily opted out of it as it could not get parliament’s approval for the MVA. Meanwhile, the other three nations decided to move ahead with the agreement. On March 7-8, the implementation of BBIN MVA was finalized in the meeting held at New Delhi which enabled MoU to be signed by India, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
In a statement, the ministry said, “Recalling the commitments made at the highest level for implementation of the BBN MVA, the delegations expressed their desire to sign the MoU at the earliest to give momentum to the implementation”.
When the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) failed to agree on a regional MVA at a summit in Nepal, the BBIN connectivity project was conceived in 2014. This connectivity was formed mainly due to the opposition from Pakistan.
The nations are emphasizing the need for speedy operation of the MVA to “enable seamless movement between them for a facilitating trade and people-to-people contact”.
