BIMSTEC

• India recently participated in the first-ever Foreign Ministers’ meeting of BIMSTEC in Bangkok, Thailand.

ABOUT BIMSTEC

• BIMSTEC is a regional organisation that was established in 1997, with the signing of Bangkok Declaration.
• The Secretariat is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Initially, it was established with four countries Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand as members.
  • Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan joined it subsequently.
• The BIMSTEC Charter was signed and adopted during the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit held in virtual format in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 30 March 2022.
• BIMSTEC also connects the ecologies of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal.
• There are 14 priority sectors that have been identified for BIMSTEC Cooperation-
  • Counter terrorism and transnational crime,
  • Transport & Communication,
  • Tourism,
  • Environment and Disaster Management,
  • Trade and Investment,
  • Cultural Cooperation,
  • Energy,
  • Agriculture,
  • Poverty Alleviation,
  • Technology,
  • Fisheries,
  • Public Health,
  • People-to-People contact
  • Climate Change.
• Each of the Member States leads in certain sectors.
  • India focuses on security, counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management and energy.

SOME FACTS

• BIMSTEC grouping accounts for 22% of the world’s population.
• Combined GDP of $2.7 trillion
• Almost 25% of the world’s traded goods cross the Bay of Bengal annually.