EMERGING SIGNIFICANCE OF BIMSTEC

29, May 2019

Why in News:

• Leaders from the BIMSTEC, Kyrgyz Republic and Mauritius are invited for the swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister.
• In this context, here is an overview on the role and significance of BIMSTEC in India.

What do these imply?

• BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) -The invite signals a major outreach to India’s neighbourhood in the Bay of Bengal.
• Last time, the PM had invited the SAARC leaders.
• The then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s attendance had raised hopes of a new beginning in the bilateral ties.
• This time, SAARC’s exclusion is clearly aimed at keeping Pakistan out of New Delhi’s engagement with its neighbours.
• Kyrgyzstan – By inviting the Kyrgyz Republic leader, India is displaying an outreach to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
• India became a member in SCO along with Pakistan in 2017.
• India thus wants to leverage its membership to advance its strategic objectives in Central Asia.
• Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth is one of the most well-placed People of Indian Origin in the world.
• Since Indian PM has invested diplomatic capital in outreach to the Indian diaspora since 2014, this invite is seen as a natural choice.

Why is BIMSTEC so significant?

• BIMSTEC comprises of Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan, besides India.
• New Delhi’s engagement with BIMSTEC rose from the ashes of SAARC (India, Pakistan,Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, and Afghanistan).
• In October 2016, following the Uri attack, India gave a renewed push for BIMSTEC, although it had existed for almost two decades.
• India had long felt that the vast potential of SAARC was being under-utilised.
• Opportunities were being lost due to either a lack of response and/or an obstructionist approach from Pakistan.
• So BIMSTEC had emerged as an alternative regional platform.
• With 5 five countries from SAARC and two from ASEAN, BIMSTEC is a bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia.
• It thus offers scope for discussions on sub-regional cooperation.
• Nevertheless, SAARC summit has only been postponed, and not cancelled.
• The possibility of revival remains, and so, the success of BIMSTEC does not render SAARC pointless.

Why the Region Matters?

• The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world.
• Over one-fifth (22%) of the world’s population live in the seven countries around it.
• These countries have a combined GDP of close to $2.7 trillion.
• Despite economic challenges, they have been able to sustain average annual economic growth rates of 3.4% – 7.5% from 2012 to 2016.
• The Bay also has vast untapped natural resources.
• One-fourth of the world’s traded goods cross the Bay every year.

How could India benefit?

• As the region’s largest economy, India has a lot at stake in BIMSTEC.
• It is a natural platform to fulfil India’s key foreign policy priorities of ‘Neighbourhood First’ and ‘Act East’. A key reason for India’s engagement is the vast potential that is unlocked with stronger connectivity. About 45 million people live in landlocked North-eastern states.
• They will have the opportunity to connect via the Bay of Bengal to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. This opens up new possibilities in terms of development.
• From the strategic perspective, the Bay of Bengal is a funnel to the Malacca straits.
• In this context, the Bay has emerged a key theatre for an increasingly assertive China in maintaining its access route to the Indian Ocean.
• Given these, it is in India’s interest to consolidate its internal engagement among the BIMSTEC countries. The BIMSTEC invite is an effort to reach out diplomatically to the neighbourhood, diaspora and the China-Russia-led regional grouping of Central Asian countries. The future course of the move depends on the progress New Delhi makes with these groupings.

BIMSTEC HEADS INVITED TO PM’S SWEARING-IN

28, May 2019

Why in News:

• India has invited several heads of state, including those from the Bay of Bengal community (BIMSTEC) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.

Details:

• Government of India has invited the leaders of the BIMSTEC Member States for the swearing-in ceremony. This is the government’s focus on it’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy”. According to the information, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is not on the list of invitees and President of the Maldives is also not among the invitees.

Background: / BIMSTEC

• Bay of Bengal Initiative on Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a sub-regional grouping involving seven countries in South Asia and South East Asia.
• The BIMSTEC states are those which are on the shore or are adjacent to the Bay of Bengal and are dependent on it.
• They are Thailand, Myanmar,Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India.
• The international organization was formed on 6th of June 1997, through the Bangkok declaration and is headquartered at Dhaka in Bangladesh.
• It mainly aims to create an enabling environment for rapid economic development, accelerate social progress, and promote collaboration on matters of common interest in the region. Bridge between South and South East Asia and represents a reinforcement of relations among these countries.
• Platform for intra-regional cooperation between SAARC and ASEAN members.
• Initially, it was formed with four Member States with the acronym ‘BIST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Sri-Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
• It became renamed ‘BIMST-EC’ in 1997, following the inclusion of Myanmar.
• With the admission of Nepal and Bhutan in 2004, the name of the grouping was changed to ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation’ (BIMSTEC).

Objectives:

• Creating an enabling environment for the rapid economic development of the sub-region. Encouraging the spirit of equality and partnership.
• Promoting active collaboration and mutual assistance in the areas of common interests of the member countries
• Accelerating support for each other in the fields of education, science, and technology.
• The first meeting of National Security Chiefs of BIMSTEC:
• The first meeting of National Security Chiefs of BIMSTEC member states was hosted by India in New Delhi on the 21st of March 2017.
• The meeting was aimed at discussing the common security challenges faced by the member countries. The necessity of addressing traditional and non-traditional security challenges to harness human security in the region was underlined, as security cooperation among the member nations is very important in achieving the objectives of the organization.
• The Importance of maritime security was emphasized. The member states put forth their views to further strengthen the maritime security cooperation including Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.
• An agreement was reached to arrive at collective strategies recognizing Bay of Bengal as a common security space.
• Urgent need for measures to counter and prevent the spread of terrorism, violent extremism and radicalization through coordination in law enforcement, security organizations and capacity building were also discussed in the meeting.

Significance for India

Allows India to pursue three core policies:

• Neighbourhood First – primacy to the country’s immediate periphery;
• Act East – connect India with Southeast Asia; and
• Economic development of India’s north-eastern states – by linking them to the Bay of Bengal region via Bangladesh and Myanmar.
• Allows India to counter China’s creeping influence in countries around the Bay of Bengal due to the spread of its Belt and Road Initiative. A new platform for India to engage with its neighbours with South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) becoming dysfunctional because of differences between India and Pakistan.