Dhaka, July 22 -- General of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Indra Mani Pandey on Tuesday emphasised that the organisation remains development-focused while also addressing security challenges that hinder the developmental aspirations of its member states.

"The point about whether we are focusing more on security, I would like to reiterate that our focus is to deal with the sustainable development goals of the member states, and also in that context, the security challenges which impact developmental aspirations of our members, we could deal with them also," he said.

The BIMSTEC Secretary General made the remarks while responding to a question during an interactive session wit...