BIMSTEC:THE BRIDGE BETWEEN SOUTH AND SOUTH EAST ASIA
It is comparatively new organization which connect south and south east Asia countries. 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.
What is BIMSTEC?
the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
why it is important for India and other members countries?
India had long felt that the potential of SAARC was being under-utilized, and opportunities were being missed due to lack of response and/or an obstructionist approach from Pakistan. At the SAARC summit in Kathmandu in 2014, Modi said these opportunities must be realized “through SAARC or outside it” and “among us all or some of us”.
Bangladesh views BIMSTEC as a platform to position itself as more than just a small state on the Bay of Bengal, and Sri Lanka sees it as an opportunity to connect with Southeast Asia and serve as the subcontinent’s hub for the wider Indo-Pacific region.
Nepal and Bhutan aim to connect with the Bay of Bengal region and escape their landlocked geographic positions. For Myanmar and Thailand, “connecting more deeply with India…would allow them to access a rising consumer market and, at the same time, balance Beijing and develop an alternative to China’s massive inroads into Southeast Asia”
For India, the region’s largest economy, a lot is at stake. In a speech given earlier, Modi had said BIMSTEC not only connects South and Southeast Asia, but also the ecologies of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. “With shared values, histories, ways of life, and destinies that are interlinked, BIMSTEC represents a common space for peace and development. For India, it is a natural platform to fulfill our key foreign policy priorities of ‘Neighborhood First’ and ‘Act East’,” he had said.
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