Health and Mass Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has been elected chairman of the first BIMSTEC health ministers’ meeting, which opened at the Hilton Colombo on Wednesday morning with all seven member states represented.

The members are Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand, the Daily Mirror reported. The agenda covers strengthening regional public health security, controlling communicable diseases, collective preparedness for health emergencies, and technical cooperation and knowledge-sharing.

Hiru News reported the election at 12.58 p.m. and said that with the chair going to Sri Lanka, responsibility for leading efforts to strengthen regional health cooperation has been assigned to the country as well.

What the chairmanship is, precisely

It is the chair of this meeting. Both filings describe Jayatissa as elected to preside over the inaugural ministerial, not as taking over the chair of BIMSTEC as an organisation — a distinction worth stating because the bloc’s rotating chairmanship is a separate office.

It is also the second chair in two days. This desk reported on Tuesday’s senior officials’ meeting, where the chair went to Health Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe. The officials’ meeting and the ministerial each elected their own presiding officer.

Jayatissa’s run of regional posts

Hiru supplies context neither this desk nor the Daily Mirror had. Jayatissa was elected to chair the 78th session of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Committee, held in Colombo in October 2025, and in October 2026 was elected vice-chairman of the fifth Asia-Pacific ministerial conference in Bangkok. Hiru presents the three posts together as an unusual concentration of regional health leadership roles in one country.

India sent its minister

Tuesday’s report noted that no filing said which countries would send ministers rather than officials. One answer arrived Wednesday: Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda landed in Colombo for the ministerial and was received by Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha, the Daily Mirror reported. That filing restates Sri Lanka’s role as host and as the bloc’s lead country for public health cooperation, a designation that dates to the Cabinet decision in late October.

Not reported

No filing names the other six delegation heads, so it remains unclear how many states sent ministers. None reports a declaration, work plan or standing mechanism being adopted, gives the chairmanship a term, says where or when the next ministerial will be held, or carries a single direct quote from the proceedings. Nadda’s itinerary and any bilateral meetings or agreements are unreported, as is any cost to the government.

On sourcing: two verified newsrooms, reporting independently and in agreement. Searches of NewsFirst, Daily News, news.lk, Daily FT, Island and EconomyNext returned no filing of their own on Wednesday’s meeting; Ada Derana has been unreachable to this desk for weeks.

Sources