• Recently, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has gained more favour as the preferred platform for regional cooperation in South Asia. Contrary to global patterns, South Asian countries have shown an increased interest in regional cooperation
• One of the reasons for BIMSTEC’s popularity is that the member countries have generally cordial relationships, something patently missing among the SAARC countries.

Indian foreign policy objectives towards the east:-

• The Look East Policy [LEP] now renamed the Act East Policy [AEP], was a course correction that began in the early 1990s. The renewed vision to seek closer relations with countries in India’s extended eastern neighbourhood was quintessentially India’s response, to domestic economic challenges and the changing international order, marked by a unipolar world.
• It is a recognition of the fact that India’s trade has shifted eastwards over 50% now.
• The logical pull factors include the Bay of Bengal littoral and Indo-Pacific region, comprising Australia, China, Bangladesh, Japan, Korea, Myanmar and the 10 ASEAN countries.
• ASEAN :-
• The ASEAN region along with India, together comprises combined population of 1.85 billion people and combined GDP has been estimated to be over $3.8 trillion. Investment from ASEAN into India has been over $70 billion in the last 17 years, accounting for more than 17 percent of India’s total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Why is BIMSTEC the natural choice :-

• BIMSTEC includes the countries of the Bay of Bengal region: five countries from South Asia and two from ASEAN. The organisation is a bridge between South Asia and South East Asia. It includes all the major countries of South Asia, except Maldives, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Given this composition, BIMSTEC has emerged as a natural platform to test regional cooperation in the South Asian region.
• BIMSTEC’s major strength comes from the fact that it includes two influential regional powers: Thailand and India. This adds to the comfort of smaller neighbours by reducing the fear of dominance by one big power.
• BIMSTEC emerged out of the necessities of the member countries:-

1. India was motivated to join BIMSTEC as it wanted to enhance its connectivity with ASEAN countries
2. For Thailand, BIMSTEC helps achieve the country’s Look West Policy.
3. BIMSTEC also helps smaller countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan to develop connectivity with ASEAN countries, the hub of major economic activities globally.
4. Myanmar sees itself as a gateway for BIMSTEC to ASEAN, primarily due to its strategic location between South and Southeast Asia. 

• The dormant status of SAARC and the changes underway in the regional and global landscape triggered India’s initiative to invite the BIMSTEC leadership . Its goals, therefore, are being redefined to add ballast to India’s “Act East Policy”.
• Urgency of promoting regional and sub-regional cooperation via BIMSTEC and BBIN has to be seen in the context of China’s BRI/OBOR and the compelling strategic challenge posed by China’s muscular geo-economic and geo-political interventions in Asia, particularly in India’s neighbourhood. 
• Though maritime disputes in the South China Sea attract global attention, the Bay of Bengal has moved centre stage as the next strategic and economic arena in the Indo-Pacific region.
• BIMSTEC and ASEAN both have seminal roles, in re-integrating the Bay of Bengal as an economic hub and strategic space. The salience of BIMSTEC has, therefore, grown for India to secure its strategic space in the neighbourhood and the Bay of Bengal region.
• The BIMSTEC countries host a population of around 1.5 billion, approximately 21% of global population, with cumulative GDP of US$ 2.5 trillion. The annual GDP growth rate has averaged around 6%. 
• The development of the Northeastern region, by opening up to Bangladesh and Myanmar, is another incentive for India.
• The ongoing India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the India-Myanmar Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project are expected to further augment connectivity and economic cooperation in the sub-region and beyond. 

Concerns:-

• Both Thailand and Myanmar are criticised for having ignored BIMSTEC in favour of ASEAN.
• BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement [MVA] is an instrument that was conceived to transform and facilitate trade. It has not yet been completely successful as Bhutan is worried about security and environmental fallout of such an agreement.
• BIMSTEC has identified 14 priority sectors and has signed an FTA (2004) and a Convention on Cooperation in Combating International Terrorism, Transnational Organized Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking (2009). The pace of implementation has been quite sluggish so far.
• Infrequency of the BIMSTEC summits, the highest decision-making body of the organisation. In its 20 years of existence, the BIMSTEC summit has taken place only thrice.
• Landmark achievement for BIMSTEC was the establishment of a permanent secretariat in Dhaka. However, the secretariat faces a severe resource crunch, both in terms of money and manpower, which has adversely affected its performance.
• Observers of BIMSTEC consider the lack of leadership as the major drawback. 

Way forward:-

• India’s SAGARMALA project, still at an early stage, can be integrated into the cooperation framework of BIMSTEC. 
• While India is the lead country for four priority sectors, namely, transportation and communication, environment and disaster management, tourism, and counter-terrorism and trans-national crime, BIMSTEC has to move into areas of strategic cooperation.
• The Asia-Africa Growth Corridor [AAGC] is another vision that can be dovetailed into BIMSTEC’s Development and Cooperation Projects, Quality Infrastructure and Institutional Connectivity, Enhancing Capacities and Skills and People-to-People partnership.
• BIMSTEC can function as the hub for connecting Asia-Pacific and the Bay of Bengal with Africa. At some stage when tangible progress has been made, other countries in the region can be invited to join specific projects.
• Consistency in the frequency of the summits to ensure regularity in decision-making
• Improving the capacity of the secretariat, both in terms of manpower and funding
• Ensuring tangible results/benefits, which will add to the motivation of the countries to concentrate on BIMSTEC (projects in the areas of tourism, digital connectivity, energy connectivity and humanitarian assistance in disaster relief should be considered)
• Empowering BIMSTEC to be a platform for dispute resolution among member countries. This will require debates and discussions among the BIMSTEC countries to reach consensus.

Conclusion:-

• Finally, since the BIMSTEC region is notable for its diversity, the member states need to build on the regional synergies and work towards utilising the available resources in the most optimal manner. This would help build a stronger and a more dynamic BIMSTEC.