BIMSTEC: Strengthening Cooperation for Peace and Development in the Bay of Bengal Region

The first-ever meeting of Foreign Ministers from the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) took place in Bangkok, Thailand on July 17. India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also attended the meeting and highlighted coordination challenges in areas such as health and energy security. 

BIMSTEC is a regional organization that was established in 1997 with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration. Originally known as BIST-EC (Bangladesh-India-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation), the organization is now known as BIMSTEC and consists of seven member countries. Myanmar joined in late 1997, followed by Bhutan and Nepal in 2004.

The seven countries around the Bay of Bengal, which are members of BIMSTEC, account for approximately 22% of the world's population and have a combined GDP of nearly $2.7 trillion. These countries have experienced average annual growth rates between 3.4% and 7.5% from 2012 to 2016. Furthermore, a quarter of the world's traded goods pass through the Bay of Bengal each year.

Initially, BIMSTEC focused on six sectors: trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism, and fisheries. Over time, the cooperation expanded to include other areas. In 2021, a reorganization took place, with each member state taking the lead in specific sectors. India's focus within BIMSTEC is on security, counter-terrorism, transnational crime, disaster management, and energy.

What is BIMSTEC?

Despite existing for many years, BIMSTEC had been largely overlooked until India revived its importance in October 2016, following a terrorist attack in Uri. Alongside the BRICS summit in Goa, India hosted an outreach summit with BIMSTEC leaders. Prior to this, some of these countries had supported India's call for a boycott of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad that November. SAARC includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as its members. When the SAARC summit was postponed, India claimed victory in isolating Pakistan.

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For India, as the largest economy in the region, BIMSTEC holds great significance. In a previous speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized that BIMSTEC not only connects South and Southeast Asia but also the ecologies of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. He described BIMSTEC as a common space for peace and development, aligning with India's foreign policy priorities of "Neighborhood First" and "Act East."