The Government of Myanmar informed the SASEC Secretariat on 21 February 2017 of its desire to formally join the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) partnership as a full member. Myanmar becomes the seventh SASEC member country, following the original four founding partners in 2001 — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal — and Maldives and Sri Lanka in 2014. Myanmar has held Observer status within SASEC for several years and first expressed its interest to join as a full member at the SASEC Nodal Officials Meeting held in May 2016 in Frankfurt. Myanmar's participation in SASEC is expected to further promote and accelerate inter-subregional cooperation between South Asia and Southeast Asia, and is in line with the objectives and thrusts of the recently launched SASEC Operational Plan 2016-2025, the program’s first comprehensive long-term strategic plan.