5th BIMSTEC Summit

BIMSTEC Summit

GS Paper 2: International Relations- India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Recently, the Prime Minister of India participated in the 5th BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit.
The 5th BIMSTEC Summit is hosted in virtual mode by Sri Lanka, the current chair of BIMSTEC.

India highlighted the importance of enhanced BIMSTEC regional connectivity, cooperation and security, and made several suggestions in this regard.
Indian Prime Minister called upon fellow leaders to strive to transform the Bay of Bengal into a Bridge of Connectivity, Prosperity, and Security among the BIMSTEC-member countries.

5^th BIMSTEC Theme: The 5^th BIMSTEC Summit’s theme is “Towards a Resilient Region, Prosperous Economies, Healthy People”.
BIMSTEC Theme captures the efforts by BIMSTEC to develop cooperation activities that support member state’s program to deal with the economic and development consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The main outcome of the 5^th BIMSTEC Summit 2022 was the adoption and signing of the BIMSTEC Charter.
- BIMSTEC Charter formalizes the grouping into an organization made up of members states that are littoral to, and dependent upon, the Bay of Bengal.
The Summit also saw considerable progress being achieved in the BIMSTEC connectivity agenda with the adoption of the ‘Master Plan for Transport Connectivity’ by Leaders.
- Master Plan for Transport Connectivity: It lays out a guidance framework for connectivity-related activities in the region in the future.
Signing of three BIMSTEC agreements: These represent progress being achieved in ongoing cooperation activities-
- BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters;
- BIMSTEC Memorandum of Understanding on Mutual Cooperation in the field of Diplomatic Training and
- Memorandum of Association on Establishment of BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility.

The BIMSTEC was founded in 1997 to provide a unique link between South and South-East Asia with 5 countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from South Asia and two countries – Myanmar and Thailand from South-East Asia.
Cooperative areas: The countries came together as one platform for cooperation in 14 key economic and social sectors of the economy.
- Initially, six sectors- trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries were included for sectoral cooperation which was later expanded to 14 areas of cooperation.
BIMSTEC Headquarter: BIMSTEC headquarters at Kathmandu, Nepal.
The 17th BIMSTEC summit was held in Sri Lanka in April 2021.
BIMSTEC New Secretary General: Tenzin Lekphell.
Objective: To pursue mutual trade, connectivity, and cultural, technical, and economic development in the region.

shivam