Evaluate the role of BIMSTEC in multisectoral technical and economic cooperation. (2019, 10 Marks)
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) began at Bangkok in June 1997 as BIST-EC, where India’s Look East, Thailand’s Look West and Bangladesh’s search for markets met. Myanmar joined that year, Nepal and Bhutan in 2004. Its design is functionalist in David Mitrany’s sense: cooperation sector by sector, technical rather than political. The record shows a well-built framework that delivers slowly.
The case for its role
- Inter-regional bridge: five South Asian and two Southeast Asian members link SAARC’s geography to ASEAN’s, around a bay that, by the grouping’s own estimate, carries about a quarter of world traded goods.
- From sectors to pillars: six founding sectors (trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism, fisheries) grew to fourteen, then were folded in 2022 into seven pillars, each led by one member: trade (Bangladesh), environment (Bhutan), security (India), agriculture (Myanmar), people-to-people contact (Nepal), science and technology (Sri Lanka) and connectivity (Thailand). Lead-country ownership gives each capital a stake.
- Institutional deepening: a Dhaka secretariat (2014), the Grid Interconnection MoU (2018) for cross-border power trade, the Master Plan for Transport Connectivity (2022), and a Charter signed at Colombo (2022) and in force since May 2024.
- Momentum: the Bangkok summit of April 2025 adopted Bangkok Vision 2030 and signed the Agreement on Maritime Transport Cooperation, in force from May 2026. The fifth meeting of security chiefs (New Delhi, 16 July 2026) adopted guidelines on the maritime component of disaster relief.
- No hostile-dyad veto: without Pakistan, SAARC’s paralysis does not apply. S. Jaishankar (June 2019) contrasted SAARC’s “certain problems” with BIMSTEC’s “energy”.
The limits
- Trade, the core pillar, is stalled: the 2004 FTA framework is still caught on rules of origin and customs cooperation. Intra-BIMSTEC trade is about 6% of members’ total, against roughly 22% in ASEAN.
- Connectivity hostage to Myanmar: the civil war holds up the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan project.
- Thin institutions: a small secretariat and six summits in nearly three decades; Thailand’s primary arena remains ASEAN.
- Uneven commitment: India builds faster than partners ratify. The maritime agreement took effect only among the four states that had ratified it (Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Thailand).
- Not a SAARC substitute: it cannot reach Pakistan, Afghanistan or the Indus basin.
Conclusion
BIMSTEC has succeeded as a framework for technical cooperation: in energy, disaster relief, maritime transport and security it builds habits SAARC never could. It has not yet become a vehicle for economic integration, since the FTA, a motor vehicles agreement and land corridors remain undelivered. Its future depends on sustained Indian investment and a stable Myanmar.