Prime Minister Modi is visiting Thailand to attend the 6th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit. This is the first physical meeting of the BIMSTEC leaders since the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2018. The last summit was held in Colombo in March 2022 in virtual format.
The theme of the sixth BIMSTEC summit is “Prosperous, resilient, and open BIMSTEC (PRO BIMSTEC). BIMSTEC includes countries of the Bay of Bengal region, and seeks to act as a bridge between South and Southeast Asia. Originally formed as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation) in 1997, it became BIMST-EC after Myanmar joined, and BIMSTEC in 2004 with the inclusion of Nepal and Bhutan. It received a charter at the 2022 Colombo summit, which came into effect last year after all members ratified it.
According to BIMSTEC’s official site, the region is home to around 1.8 billion people, nearly 22 percent of the global population, and has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$3.6 trillion. The main aim of the regional group was to promote economic cooperation between countries bordering the Bay of Bengal. BIMSTEC is seen as the extension of India’s neighborhood First Policy. This policy guides India’s relations with countries in its immediate neighborhood. It focuses on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented, regional frameworks for stability and prosperity through the building of physical, digital and people-to-people connectivity.
BIMSTEC is often compared with SAARC. Prof. C. Raja Mohan writes, “Any reference to BIMSTEC inevitably raises its unfortunate image as an alternative to SAARC, the stalled forum for regional cooperation in the Subcontinent. This perception arose partly because the Modi government’s push to enhance BIMSTEC activity followed immediately after the SAARC summit’s failure in 2014.” However, the SAARC encountered problems from the very beginning. As anticipated, Pakistan used the platform as a space to corner India and gang up with the smaller countries, except Bhutan, against it. To counter this, India formulated the Look East Policy in 1992, leading to the formation of BIMSTEC, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) in 1997, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) in 2000, and the Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal (BBIN) Transport Agreement in 2015.
The focus of BIMSTEC is very wide, including 14 areas of cooperation like connectivity, public health, agriculture etc. It is suggested that BIMSTEC should remain committed to small focus areas and cooperate in them efficiently. The focus of BIMSTEC is very wide, including 14 areas of cooperation like connectivity, public health, agriculture etc. It is suggested that BIMSTEC should remain committed to small focus areas and cooperate in them efficiently. Despite talks for the need for expansion of connectivity, much of the work is unfinished when it comes to finalising legal instruments for coastal shipping, road transport and intra-regional energy grid connection. For the revived grouping to realize its trade and economic potential. India cannot rely solely on multilateral and bilateral approaches to promote Bay of Bengal regionalism. It must identify areas for unilateral action.
Thailand’s decision to offer visa-free entry to Indian travelers demonstrates unilateralism’s potential — this single policy has dramatically enhanced India-Thailand engagement, despite years of BIMSTEC discussions about connectivity. India must leverage its economic might — now reaching $4 trillion — and its asymmetric relationship with BIMSTEC neighbors. Thailand, BIMSTEC’s second-largest economy, has an aggregate GDP of about $500 billion.
India will have to take a leadership role in assuaging any apprehensions among the smaller members of intragroup power imbalances and strive to facilitate greater cross-border connectivity and flow of investments by lowering barriers to the movement of people and goods. BIMSTEC should focus more in the future on new areas such as the blue economy, the digital economy, and promotion of exchanges and links among start-ups and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
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