Exercise: CURTAIN RAISER PANEX-21

Context: A Curtain Raiser Event for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief exercise, PANEX-21, for the member nations of BIMSTEC countries, was held at Kothari Auditorium DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi.
About Exercise PANEX-21

• It is a multi-nation Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief exercise.
• Participants: The exercise will involve BIMSTEC Countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and India.
• Aim: To foster joint planning and build regional cooperation for responding to natural disasters.
• The exercise will look at analyzing the capabilities of member states and share best practices for response to disasters, including capability development and training. Protocols for military-to-military cooperation will also be discussed.

BIMSTEC countries

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization comprising seven Member States lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity. 
• This sub-regional organization came into being on 6 June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.
• It constitutes seven Member States: five deriving from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and two from Southeast Asia, including 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 22 December 1997 during a special Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the Group was renamed ‘BIMST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). 
• With the admission of Nepal and Bhutan at the 6th Ministerial Meeting (February 2004, Thailand), the name of the grouping was changed to ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation’ (BIMSTEC).
• The regional group constitutes a bridge between South and South East Asia and represents a reinforcement of relations among these countries. 
• BIMSTEC has also established a platform for intra-regional cooperation between SAARC and ASEAN members.
• The BIMSTEC region is home to around 1.5 billion people which constitute around 22% of the global population with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.7 trillion economy.