Knowledge Nugget: What should you know about BIMSTEC and SAARC for UPSC?

Why in the news?

Prime Minister Modi is visiting Thailand to attend the 6th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit. This is the first physical meeting of the BIMSTEC leaders since the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2018. The last summit was held in Colombo in March 2022 in virtual format.

The theme of the sixth BIMSTEC summit is “Prosperous, resilient, and open BIMSTEC (PRO BIMSTEC). Speaking at the summit in Bangkok, Modi said, “BIMSTEC serves as a vital bridge between South and Southeast Asia, and is emerging as a powerful platform for advancing regional connectivity, cooperation and shared prosperity.”

Key Takeaways:

1. BIMSTEC includes countries of the Bay of Bengal region, and seeks to act as a bridge between South and Southeast Asia. Originally formed as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation) in 1997, it became BIMST-EC after Myanmar joined, and BIMSTEC in 2004 with the inclusion of Nepal and Bhutan. It received a charter at the 2022 Colombo summit, which came into effect last year after all members ratified it.

2. According to BIMSTEC’s official site, the region is home to around 1.8 billion people, nearly 22 percent of the global population, and has a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$3.6 trillion. The main aim of the regional group was to promote economic cooperation between countries bordering the Bay of Bengal.

6th BIMSTEC Summit (X/@narendramodi)

3. Cooperation within the BIMSTEC had initially focused on six sectors in 1997 (trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism, and fisheries) and expanded in 2008 to other areas. In 2021, a reorganisation led to each of the Member States leading certain sectors. India focuses on security, along with counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management and energy.

4. Despite having been in existence for many years, the grouping had been largely ignored until India gave it a renewed push in October 2016, a month after the terrorist attack in Uri. Alongside the BRICS summit in Goa, India hosted an outreach summit with leaders of BIMSTEC countries.

5. The current Secretary General of the BIMSTEC is Indra Mani Pandey from India. During the Third BIMSTEC Summit (2014) held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, the Secretariat was established in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pose with holy scripture of ‘World Tipitaka’ at the Government House, in Bangkok, Thailand, April 3, 2025. (REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha )

India’s Neighbourhood First Policy

6. BIMSTEC is seen as the extension of India’s Neighbourhood First Policy. This policy guides India’s relations with countries in its immediate neighbourhood. It focuses on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented, regional frameworks for stability and prosperity through the building of physical, digital and people-to-people connectivity.

7. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India engages with these countries on a consultative, non-reciprocal and outcome-oriented basis, driven by the principles of 4Ss: Samman (respect), Samvad (dialogue), Shanti (peace), and Samriddhi (prosperity).

BEYOND THE NUGGET: SAARC

BIMSTEC is often compared with SAARC. UPSC has also asked a question on a similar line in 2022. C. Raja Mohan writes, “Any reference to BIMSTEC inevitably raises its unfortunate image as an alternative to SAARC, the stalled forum for regional cooperation in the Subcontinent. This perception arose partly because the Modi government’s push to enhance BIMSTEC activity followed immediately after the SAARC summit’s failure in 2014.”

1. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a regional inter-governmental organisation of South Asian countries, namely, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It was formed in 1985. Afghanistan joined the bloc in 2007, under its then President Hamid Karzai. SAARC also includes nine formally recognised observers, including the European Union, the US, Iran and China.

2. The organisation enacted the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) in 1995 and the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in 2004 to strengthen intra-SAARC economic cooperation to maximise the realization of the region’s potential for trade and development for the benefit of their people.

3. However, the SAARC encountered problems from the very beginning. As anticipated, Pakistan used the platform as a space to corner India and gang up with the smaller countries, except Bhutan, against it. To counter this, India formulated the Look East Policy in 1992, leading to the formation of BIMSTEC, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) in 1997, the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) in 2000, and the Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal (BBIN) Transport Agreement in 2015.

4. In the history of 39 years of its formation, the SAARC has only convened 18 Summits. The last summit (18th Summit) was convened in 2014 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The 19th Summit was supposed to take place in Pakistan in 2016. But due to the terrorist attack that took place in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016, India refused to participate in the Summit. After that, the other countries also pulled themselves out of the summit.

Post read question

(b) 1 and 4 only

(c) 2 and 5 only

(d) 1, 2 and 5 only

(Read more: UPSC Specials |India and Regionalism in South Asia, India’s new MAHASAGAR policy)

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