Whither BIMSTEC?

For Nepal and Bhutan, BIMSTEC acts as a forum to improve their foreign policy interests.

The second Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Foreign Ministers’ retreat was held in Delhi on July 11-12. This was when the BIMSTEC initiative slowed down, with each country having other priorities. Many saw BIMSTEC as an alternative to SAARC, as the regional organisation was revived as a cooperation vehicle in the Eastern part of South Asia. It now has a Secretary General with a Secretariat based in Dhaka and adopted a charter only recently, even though the organisation came into existence in 1997. Yet efforts are being made for regular meetings and dialogues among the officials of states to take the initiative forward and make progress on the 14 priority areas.