Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 5th BIMSTEC Summit, which was being held in virtual mode.

The Summit was hosted by Sri Lanka, the current BIMSTEC chair.

What is BIMSTEC?

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) comprises India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.

• It is a regional bloc comprising seven countries lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.

• This sub-regional organisation came into being on June 6, 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration. It constitutes five countries from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two from Southeast Asia (Myanmar and Thailand).

• Initially, the economic bloc was formed with four member states with the acronym BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Following the inclusion of Myanmar on December 22, 1997 during a special ministerial meeting in Bangkok, the group was renamed BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation).

• With the admission of Nepal and Bhutan at the sixth ministerial meeting in February 2004, the name of the grouping was changed to Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).

• Bringing together over 1.7 billion people and a combined GDP of $3.7 trillion, the BIMSTEC has emerged as an influential engine of economic growth.

• India has been pushing for making BIMSTEC a vibrant forum as various regional initiatives under South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) were not moving forward primarily due to non-cooperation from Pakistan.

• For India, BIMSTEC is a natural choice to take forward key foreign policy priorities like ‘Neighbourhood First’ and ‘Act East’ as the bloc enjoys the strength of connecting South and Southeast Asia. 

• Initially, six sectors — trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries — were included for sectoral cooperation. It was later expanded to 14 areas of cooperation. Agriculture is one of the 14 sectors. 

• As over 1.7 billion people (22 per cent of the global population) live in BIMSTEC countries, agriculture and allied activities are central to the economic and social development of the region.

• India hosted humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise — PANEX-21 in December 2021.

Highlights of the Summit:

• The Summit adopted the BIMSTEC Charter, which formalises the grouping into an organization made up of member states that are littoral to, and dependent upon, the Bay of Bengal.

• It also formally adopted the BIMSTEC master plan for transport connectivity which was finalised under India’s chairmanship of the expert group last year. The master plan envisages a seamless multimodal transport system across the region with efficient transit facilities to enhance the mobility of goods and people.

• The leaders of the BIMSTEC member countries also approved a complete reorganisation of the grouping's cooperation activities.

• The BIMSTEC cooperation activities will take place in seven pillars and each of the member countries will lead one pillar.

• India will lead the security pillar of the BIMSTEC. 

• PM Modi called for greater cooperation among BIMSTEC nations and said it has become essential to give more priority to “regional security”.

• Modi said India will provide $1 million in financial aid to augment the operational budget of the BIMSTEC Secretariat.

Three agreements were also signed during the Summit. They are:

i) BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.

ii) BIMSTEC Memorandum of Understanding on Mutual Cooperation in the field of Diplomatic Training.

iii) Memorandum of Association on Establishment of BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility.

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