India and BIMSTEC

WHY IN NEWS:

• 24^th BIMSTEC Day was observed on June 6, 2021, and heads of BIMSTEC countries conveyed their hope of increased cooperation among the member countries in the pursuit of building a secure, peaceful and prosperous Bay of Bengal region.

ABOUT

• BIMSTEC stands for Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
• It is a regional organization comprising seven Member States lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.
• This sub-regional organization came into being on 6 June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.
• Member States:
  • Five deriving from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and
  • Two from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand.
• The Permanent Secretariat of BIMSTEC was established in Dhaka, Bangladesh
• The Chairmanship of BIMSTEC rotates among the Member States.

INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS IN BIMSTEC

• BIMSTEC Summit
  • Highest policymaking body in BIMSTEC process and is comprised of heads of government of member states.
• Ministerial Meeting
  • Second apex policy-making forum of BIMSTEC attended by the External/Foreign Ministers of Member States.
• Senior Officials’ Meeting
  • Represented by Senior Officials of Foreign Ministries of the Member States.
• BIMSTEC Working Group
  • Attended by Ambassadors of BIMSTEC Member Countries to Bangladesh or their representatives on a monthly basis at the BIMSTEC Secretariat in Dhaka.
• Business Forum & Economic Forum
  • The two important forums to ensure active participation of private sector.

SIGNIFICANCE OF BIMSTEC FOR INDIA

• Strategic or Geopolitical:
  • Aligned with India’s foreign policy priorities
    • For India, BIMSTEC stands at the very important juncture of ‘Neighborhood First’ and ‘Act East Policy’.
    • It also aids our South-South cooperation efforts.
  • A platform which is free from bilateral tussles:
    • A new platform for India to engage with its neighbors with SAARC becoming dysfunctional because of differences between India and Pakistan.
    • Absence of Pakistan in the grouping (unlike SAARC) >> will give more space of open discussions and negotiations
  • To contain China:
    • The rapidly changing geostrategic context of Asia and India’s need to look at Bay of Bengal as a key theatre for containing an increasingly capable and assertive China >> brings BIMSTEC in to center stage.
• Economic:
  • Market:
    • The BIMSTEC region offers a market of 1.6 billion people, about a fifth of the global population.
  • Trade potential
    • The implementation of the proposed BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement can help the intra-BIMSTEC trade grow up to USD 240 billion from the current estimated USD 40 billion.
  • Vast marine wealth:
    • Potential for development of blue economy around the Bay of Bengal region
  • Empowerment of North-East India:
    • Development of the North-eastern region through integration with South East Asia.
  • Mineral exploration:
    • Petroleum and natural-gas discoveries have been made in the Bay of Bengal, notably offshore of the Godavari and Mahanadi deltas
    • There are placer deposits of titanium off northeastern Sri Lanka and rare earths off northeastern India
  • Tourism
    • Tourism has rich potential in the BIMSTEC region, as this region is home to ancient civilizations with deep civilization and cultural linkages, several historic monuments, and natural splendour.
    • BIMSTEC Tourism Information Centre was established in in Delhi to create a Network of Tour Operators among the BIMSTEC Member States to promote tourism in the region
• Scope for regional integration:
  • The projects pending with BIMSTEC such as Kaladan Multimodal project, Trilateral Highway, BIMSTEC Motor Vehicle Agreement, BIMSTEC Coastal Shipping Agreement, when finished, are likely to transform the region, especially India
  • BIMSTEC also constitutes a bridge between South and South East Asia and represents a reinforcement of relations among these countries.
• Security
  • Greater cooperation among BIMSTEC states enables better capability for countering terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy etc.
  • With gaining central leadership in BIMSTEC India could assert the position of ‘net security provider’ in the Indian Ocean Region
  • Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime:
    • Terrorism remains the single largest significant threat to peace and stability in the region.
    • BIMSTEC, through its various sub-groups under Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime has been working towards strengthening cooperation against terrorism.
• Environment and Disaster Management
  • BIMSTEC region is vulnerable to a variety of natural disasters.
  • Building regional capacities for coordinated disaster response, risk reduction and rehabilitation is accordingly important to the region.
  • The BIMSTEC Summit in 2014 resolved to enhance cooperation in environmental protection and sustainable development and promote capacity building in the area of disaster management.
  • India has also taken the initiative for addressing regional susceptibilities in this regard by setting up a BIMSTEC Centre for Weather and Climate
  • The first BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise hosted by India in 2017 saw participation from all Member States

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

• BIMSTEC Leader's Retreat in 2016
  • The BIMSTEC Leader's Retreat hosted by India in Goa in October 2016 served as an important impetus to BIMSTEC.
  • A robust policy agenda agreed during the Retreat was meant to translate the shared commitment into delivery of specific, people oriented initiatives to achieve greater connectivity, trade, people-to-people contacts, and sustainable use of resources
• Disaster Management Exercise in 2017
  • India conducted the first BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise with the National Disaster Response Force as the lead agency in New Delhi.
• Military exercise in 2018
  • India hosted the first ever military exercise of BIMSTEC countries in Pune.
• 20th Anniversary of BIMSTEC:
  • A series of events were organised by India to mark the 20th anniversary of BIMSTEC in 2017-18.
  • These include:
    • A BIMSTEC business conference by Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at Agartala
    • BIMSTEC Tele-Medicine Network by JIPMER
    • BIMSTEC Festival of Buddhist Heritage
• Invitation to swearing-in ceremony in 2019
  • BIMSTEC leaders were invited to the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

CHALLENGES:

• Geopolitical and Strategic:
  • China factor
    • China’s strategic and economic influence on BIMSTEC members >> can make BIMSTEC hostage to Indo-China regional rivalry.
  • Confusion over India’s intentions
    • BIMSTEC is sometimes perceived as grouping driven by India for the sole purpose of isolating Pakistan
    • India will need to convince other BIMSTEC members that its new outreach to them is not a “rebound relationship,” a short-term measure to isolate Pakistan.
  • India fails to provide a central leadership
    • India, its largest member, has often been blamed for not providing a strong leadership.
    • Consequent to slow progress of its mandate, Thailand and Myanmar have often seen ignoring BIMSTEC for ASEAN Forum.
  • Political unrest in Myanmar
    • Ongoing military coup in Myanmar and popular protest against the military coup is a new practical challenge.
  • The impression that it is an India-dominated bloc:
    • This perception of Indian hegemony, coupled with big brother attitude portrayed by India in certain cases such as Nepal’s Constitution building etc. >> pose a great challenge for the forum to succeed  
• Economic:
  • Lack of connectivity
    • Lack of good infrastructure especially in the coastal area has acted as a barrier to trade by raising cost and time
    • Physical connectivity between member countries is at nascent stage, and many of such projects faces delays
    • For instance the tri-lateral highway connecting India-Myanmar-Thailand has not yet operationalized.
  • Poor intra-regional trade and investment:
    • The BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement (FTA), signed in 2004, is yet to be implemented.
    • The protectionist economies of South Asian countries and so-called national interests are making free trade an unattainable objective.
    • The growth of intra- regional investment is negligible
• Institutional:
  • Apathy towards holding regular annual summits:
    • Only four summit meetings have been held since its inception 22 years back.
    • It took seven years for its first summit to take place in 2004 at Thailand.
    • While most of the regional organization (SCO, ASEAN, G20) were able to meet at a high political level even during the Pandemic, BIMSTEC leaders failed to meet.
  • Lack of institutional support and funding
    • It also took 17 long years for this Forum to establish its permanent secretariat at Dhaka in 2014.
    • The secretariat faces a severe resource crunch, both in terms of money and manpower, which has adversely affected its performance
• Bilateral issues between member nations:
  • Bangladesh is facing one of the worst refugee crisis of Rohingyas from Myanmar who are fleeing prosecution in the state of Rakhine in Myanmar.
  • There is a border conflict between Myanmar and Thailand.
  • A maritime dispute between India and Sri Lanka remains unsolved >> Despite an agreement in 1974 (Indo-Lanka Maritime Boundary Agreement) Indian fishermen tend to cross the maritime border into Sri Lanka in the Palk Strait

WAY FORWARD:

• India should take the lead
  • As BIMSTEC suffers from a lack of human and financial resources >> India needs to allocate more resources to its BIMSTEC budget and should take an informal leadership role to provide BIMSTEC with momentum.
• Focusing on institution building
  • There should be consistency in the frequency of the summits >> to ensure regularity in decision-making
  • Improving the capacity of the secretariat, both in terms of manpower and funding
• Gujral Doctrine:
  • Application of Gujral doctrine will help to build trust between BIMSTEC member states
• Ensuring tangible results
  • This will add to the motivation of the countries to concentrate on BIMSTEC
  • Projects in the areas of tourism, digital connectivity, energy connectivity and humanitarian assistance in disaster relief should be considered as priority
• A platform for dispute resolution
  • Empowering BIMSTEC to be a platform for dispute resolution among member countries.
• Balancing Security and Economy:
  • India has led through constant focus and follow-up — to the extent that some member-states have complained about the ‘over securitization of BIMSTEC.
  • Hence, there is a need to ensure maintaining security and forging solid arrangements for economic cooperation.

CONCLUSION

• BIMSTEC provides the Bay of Bengal nations an opportunity to work together to create a common space for peace and development.
• With the member countries exhibiting enough political will and mutual respect, it should be possible to move towards a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Bay of Bengal region in the near future.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. Examine the successes and failures of BIMSTEC, as a unique platform linking South Asia and Southeast Asia