INDIA'S EASTERN COMPANY

WITH THE SAARC MORIBUND NOW, THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT HAS RENEWED FOCUS ON THE 26-YEAR-OLD BIMSTEC GROUPING. ARMED WITH A NEW CHARTER, THE GROUPING IS LOOKING TO PARTNER WITH THE UN AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS TO DEVELOP THE BAY OF BENGAL REGION

- NAVNEET DUBEY

MUCH HAS CHANGED since the General Elections in India. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is back in power, aided by coalition partners. But there may be continuity in some areas, especially in foreign policy and trade.

That continuity will perhaps be on display in September in Bangkok, at the seven-nation Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) group's summit.

If India's leadership of the G20, culminating in the grand Summit in New Delhi in 2023, was a declaration of the country's emergence as a force to be reckoned with on the global stage, the summit in September will also be a declaration, this one about the country's desire to strengthen relationships in its neighbourhood and on its eastern coast.

Established in 1997, BIMSTEC initially comprised four countries-Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand-under the name BIST-EC. Myanmar joined in December that year, and the grouping became BIMST-EC. Then, in 2004, Nepal and Bhutan were welcomed as full members, and the bloc was renamed BIMSTEC. Since 2014, it has had a permanent secretariat in Dhaka to anchor its activities.

Consider its potential: The seven nations have a combined population of 1.8 billion, or about 22% of the global population-that's larger than the combined population of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) at 679.69 million and the European Union at 448.4 million. But it has a long way to go in terms of GDP; the combined GDP of the BIMSTEC countries was $4.5 trillion as of 2022, which was about 4.4% of world GDP, per World Bank data. The states had a combined external trade of $1.95 trillion, or about 6% of world trade, per UNCTAD.