On April 4-5, leaders of the BIMSTEC countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand — gathered in Bangkok for the grouping’s sixth summit. Known more by its acronym BIMSTEC than its expanded name — Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation — the grouping that brings together countries situated around the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean hasn’t made much of a splash since its birth in 1997.
But of late, they have shown interest in cooperating in seven areas: agriculture and food security, connectivity, environment and climate change, people-to-people contacts, science, technology and innovation, security and trade, and investment and development.
At Bangkok, BIMSTEC leaders indicated that they are slowly realizing its potential.
To invigorate trade, they committed to speed up a free trade agreement, explore establishment of digital cross-border payment systems with trade settlements in local currencies, increase road and maritime connectivity, boost skills development for their people, increase cooperation in agriculture and fisheries, focus on increasing regional security cooperation, and develop plans to deal with natural disasters. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his part, put forward more than 20 initiatives to cement and speed up BIMSTEC cooperation.
While these resolutions may seem commonplace, they come amid a major churn in the world, including a walk away from globalization and multilateralism toward increased geopolitical and geo-economic fragmentation. Read against this backdrop, BIMSTEC’s actions make sense. It is seeking to steady and anchor itself economically and politically amid flux.
Highlighting these trends at the BIMSTEC foreign ministers’ meeting on April 3, before the leaders’ summit, India’s Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar, noted: “The reality is that the world is moving to an era of self-help. Every region needs to look out for itself, whether in food, fuel and fertilizer supply, vaccines or speedy disaster response. We are seeing that unfold before our very eyes. Times have indeed changed. Shorter supply chains and immediate neighbors have a salience much more than before.”
For India, one of the founding members of BIMSTEC, the grouping has emerged as an important platform in recent years.
As Jaishankar pointed out in New Delhi in July 2024, “For India, BIMSTEC represents the intersection of its ‘Neighbourhood First’ outlook, the ‘Act East Policy’ and the ‘SAGAR’ vision.” “We are all determined to infuse new energies, new resources and a new commitment into cooperation among the Bay of Bengal nations,” he added.
India’s sharpened focus on BIMSTEC comes after decades of trying to make a success of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC)– a grouping of eight South Asian countries. Without quite saying so, India has abandoned SAARC given its slow progress due to internecine tensions.
In 2014, when first elected as India’s prime minister, Modi invited leaders of SAARC nations to his inauguration. It was seen as prioritizing countries in India’s periphery. But SAARC, which includes India’s archrival, Pakistan, hasn’t held a summit since 2014, mainly due to bilateral tensions over terrorism. And when he was re-elected for a second term in 2019, Modi invited leaders of BIMSTEC countries to his inauguration ceremony in a pointed message to Pakistan, which is seen as scuttling India-led initiatives to promote regional cooperation besides promoting anti-India terrorist groups.
“SAARC has certain problems. Even if you were to put the terrorism issue aside, there are connectivity issues, there are trade issues,” Jaishankar told an audience in 2019, soon after taking over as Indian foreign minister. He was referring to India’s position that Pakistan nurtures terrorist groups inimical to New Delhi. The tensions between the two have stalled bilateral interaction. Besides, Pakistan has refused to cooperate within the SAARC framework in areas of trade and connectivity. In contrast, “I think what we see today is an energy in BIMSTEC, a possibility in BIMSTEC, a mindset in BIMSTEC which fits in with that optimistic vision of economic cooperation” that India is looking to take forward, the minister had then said.
There was considerable skepticism among South Asian countries over India switching focus to BIMSTEC, given that SAARC had well-defined and articulated frameworks for cooperation. In contrast, the BIMSTEC did not even have a charter defining its goals and principles. It was only in 2022 that the BIMSTEC charter was adopted at the Colombo Summit, and the BIMSTEC Charter came into force on May 20, 2024.
One of the big takeaways of the recent Bangkok Summit was the signing of an agreement on maritime transport cooperation. “BIMSTEC now has a comprehensive framework for seamless maritime transport, aimed at reducing logistical bottlenecks and deepening economic integration. The Agreement will enhance port efficiency, harmonize maritime policies, and streamline customs procedures, ensuring smoother movement of goods and services,” a statement on the pact said.
India is keen to promote BIMSTEC as it also blends in with its Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean strategies. For one, the Bay of Bengal and, therefore, its littoral states are within the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), which India, with a 7,500-km-long coastline, considers its backyard.
The Indian Ocean is very much part of the Indo-Pacific geostrategic space that India and countries like the U.S., Japan, and Australia, among others, define as stretching from the east coast of Africa to the west coast of the U.S.
In the Bay of Bengal and the larger Indian Ocean, India is increasingly detecting a strong Chinese naval presence, given that a major part of China’s trade passes through the Indian Ocean. Given this, a strong, cohesive, connected and economically intertwined BIMSTEC that delivers for its people with India (and Thailand being the two largest economies) at the core is something New Delhi would want.
All BIMSTEC members have economic linkages with China that cannot be wished away. But as a grouping, increasing interlinkages within BIMSTEC would be a strategic hedge for many, including India, in the grouping against a rising China.
BIMSTEC is also an avenue for India to bind its insurgency-wracked Northeast economically with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Thailand. Prime Minister Modi described it as the “heart” of BIMSTEC, given its proximity to these countries. Countries like Singapore and Japan are already involved in economic projects in the Northeast.
With the conclusion of the Bangkok Summit, Bangladesh will don the mantle of BIMSTEC chair for the next two years. With India’s relations with the interim government in Bangladesh souring, how the two work together to keep BIMSTEC afloat and vibrant remains to be seen. Bangladesh’s Chief Interim Advisor Muhammad Yunus’ recent remarks suggesting economic integration of China, Bangladesh and India’s Northeast did not go down well in Delhi. This was perhaps one of the issues that Modi was referring to when he told Yunus that “rhetoric that vitiates the environment is best avoided,” during a meeting on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC meet on April 4.
At Bangkok, Modi also met Myanmar’s military ruler, Gen Min Aung Hlaing. Myanmar is a critical link for India as it bridges South Asia and Southeast Asia. Peace and stability in Myanmar are critical for plans for a highway from India to Thailand via Myanmar to fructify. Myanmar is also crucial for India in its fight against insurgents in its northeast.
Assuaging the anxieties of its smaller neighbors and keeping them in India’s orbit will be crucial to the success of BIMSTEC. A demand of the smaller South Asian countries to include China in SAARC was a major irritant within the grouping, with India stoutly opposing the move, although China did get observer status in 2006 along with Japan.
Should countries like Nepal and Bangladesh that profess to keep equidistance between India and China, seek Beijing’s inclusion in BIMSTEC like they did in the case of SAARC, that would be a spoiler for India. It would also pose a test for its diplomacy. Given its troubles with SAARC, India, which views itself as BIMSTEC’s linchpin, would want the latter to succeed.
