India hosts BIMSTEC Young Leaders’ Summit in Guwahati

• India hosted the BIMSTEC Young Leaders’ Summit September in Guwahati from September 9 to 11.

• It highlighted the critical role of young people of the region for its holistic development. 

• The initiative was part of the 21-point action plan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 6th BIMSTEC Summit, to further strengthen BIMSTEC.

• The Summit witnessed participation by over 80 young leaders from all member countries of BIMSTEC, representing a cross section of their societies, including political, business, socio-cultural and civil society.

• The event also highlighted the importance of northeast India as the land bridge of the socio-economic developmental corridor bringing the Bay of Bengal region together.

• The initiative, in line with India’s Neighborhood First, Act East and MAHASAGAR visions for regional cooperation, would prepare the young leaders of the region to drive policies and development efforts, as also to deal with the challenges of today and the future, for growth and prosperity in the region.

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).

• The BIMSTEC region is home to about 1.8 billion people, accounting for about 22 per cent of the global population with a combined GDP of $4.5 trillion.

• The BIMSTEC Secretariat is situated in Dhaka.

• 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.