About BIMSTEC

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a multilateral regional organisation established with the aim of accelerating shared growth and cooperation between littoral and adjacent countries in the Bay of Bengal region.
• It has a total of seven member countries- five from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, and two from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand. 
• It was founded in 1997 with the adoption of the Bangkok Declaration. BIMSTEC’s headquarters is situated in Dhaka.
• The aim of the regional grouping was to revive the connectivity and common interests of the members of the Bay of Bengal region. The regional group constitutes a bridge between South and South East Asia and represents a reinforcement of relations among these countries.

• The BIMSTEC Charter was signed and adopted during the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit held in Sri Lanka in March 2022. 

Significance of BIMSTEC 

• The BIMSTEC region hosts 22% of the world population or 1.68 billion people; and a GDP of nearly 3 trillion. 
• For India, BIMSTEC aligns with its ‘Act East’ policy for greater regional cooperation in southeast Asia. It could also be seen as aligning with India’s larger goal to gain trade and security prominence in the Indian Ocean region and to cater to the concept of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ region, a major focus of Quad countries.
• Another important factor for India in becoming a prominent leader in the Bay and maintaining peace and security is China making inroads in the Indian Ocean Region over the years. Besides, China today is involved in a widespread drive to build infrastructure in South and Southeast Asian countries, it has projects under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in all BIMSTEC members except India and Bhutan.
• The idea of BIMSTEC also gained prominence at a time when the need for an alternative regional-global organisation is increasingly being felt because of the dormant nature of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which has not met since 2014. 
• BIMSTEC is also important owing to the land and maritime trade potential of the member countries.

Challenges and setbacks

• The first and major challenge is lack of efficiency and sluggish pace of BIMSTEC’s progress. 
• The current Bay of Bengal region is one of the least integrated areas in the world. The share of all BIMSTEC countries in world trade is less than 4 per cent. The BIMSTEC intra-regional trade was at $70 billion in 2021, significantly lower than ASEAN’s $600 billion, where exports were over $111 billion. 
• While BIMSTEC members have not adopted a Free Trade Agreement yet, they are involved in multiple bilateral and multilateral free trade, preferential trade and economic cooperation agreements with other countries. A comprehensive BIMSTEC FTA can help to reduce barriers to trade and investment and assist the business to join global supply chains.
• Maritime cooperation is key to safe and secure trade. Bay of Bengal countries together shall work for maritime safety and security at the sea in cases of search and rescue, humanitarian assistance, coastal surveillance, among others. Regional cooperation in maritime connectivity will ease the burden to trade and investment barriers. 
• Presently, BIMSTEC hovers around at political and bureaucratic levels. For wider acceptability and entrenchment, it is vital to take the grouping to the level of the people through track 1.5, track 2, and track 3 diplomacy.
  • Track 1 Diplomacy refers to official diplomacy, where communication is directly between or among governments. 
  • Track 1.5 Diplomacy occurs when government representatives and non-governmental experts engage in dialogue or meetings together in less formal ways than Track 1 diplomacy. 
  • Track 2 Diplomacy denotes a purely unofficial channel for dialogue between non-governmental experts, without direct governmental involvement. 
  • Track 3 Diplomacy, also known as ‘people-to-people’ diplomacy, takes place at the grass-roots level and does not involve official actors. 

Why in News?

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will now be open to new members and observers after a historic first charter of the grouping came into force recently.
• With the coming into force of the charter which was adopted in the 5th summit of the BIMSTEC leaders, the grouping has acquired a ‘legal personality’ and will be able to enter into structured diplomatic dialogue with other groupings and countries.
• Following the pandemic, the leaders of the BIMSTEC nations met virtually in 2022 under the chairship of Sri Lanka and adopted the charter. 
• The chair of BIMSTEC was taken up by Thailand after the 5th leaders’ summit. Last month, Nepal’s partliament took up the BIMSTEC charter and ratified it which paved the way for the coming into force of chater.

Significance

• The organization received greater attention especially in the backdrop of the near moribund status of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which last met in Kathmandu during 2014. 
• The next SAARC summit was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in 2016 but was derailed in the backdrop of terror strikes on India that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based elements. 
• Ever since, the statements emanating from the Government of India have indicated that India is willing to shift its focus from SAARC to BIMSTEC as the latter is in greater harmony with India’s ‘Act East’ policy. 

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/bimstec-acquires-legal-personality-after-charter-comes-into-force/article68204638.ece