BIMSTEC Summit 2022- Relevance for UPSC Exam
- GS Paper 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
BIMSTEC Summit 2022 in News
- 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.
Key Points about BIMSTEC Summit 2022
- Adoption of the BIMSTEC Charter: the Fifth BIMSTEC summit promises to re-energize the 25-year-old grouping at a time of growing global uncertainties.
- The Charter is expected to help impart a more connected vision to the seven-member organization (BIMSTEC).
- Leading the Security Pillar: India has decided to lead the ‘security pillar’ out of the seven designated pillars of the revived BIMSTEC,
- This has given India’s regional aspirations a new orientation, away from the stalemated SAARC that has been unable to meet since November 2014.
- With his call for a BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has outlined India’s vision to bolster trade connectivity in the grouping.
- Comparative Advantage: Unlike SAARC, which is burdened by India-Pakistan hostilities, BIMSTEC is relatively free of sharp bilateral disagreements and promises to provide India with a cooperative sphere of its own.