BIMSTEC Summit
- GS Paper 2: International Relations- India and its neighbourhood- relations.
5th BIMSTEC Summit
- 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 at BIMSTEC Summit 2022
- 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.
BIMSTEC Agriculture Meet
5th BIMSTEC Summit Theme
- 5th BIMSTEC Theme: The 5th 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.
PANEX-21 Exercise: Pune hosted PANEX-21 Military Exercise
Key Outcomes of the 5th BIMSTEC Summit
- The main outcome of the 5th 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.
Key Points about BIMSTEC Countries
- 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.
BIMSTEC Agriculture Meet