Relevance: GS Paper II
Why has this issue cropped up?
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit is to be held in Kathmandu.
India’s renewed interest in BIMSTEC
- A key reason for India to reach out to its BIMSTEC neighbours has been the stagnation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). This limited both the scope of India’s growing economic aspirations as well as the role it could play in improving regional governance.
- The main motivation for India to push BIMSTEC is is in the country’s interest to ensure that the region does not lag behind and that an unstable neighbourhood does not drag its growth.
- India’s desire to link South Asia to the economically dynamic Southeast Asia is also part of this strategy.
- The rationale behind making the BIMSTEC mechanism work is to reassure South Asia that the region can work together to achieve common goals with India playing its due role.
Challenges’ ahead
- With the BIMSTEC secretariat planning to strengthen its capacity by increasing human resources and the number of officials representing each member state, India may need to consider allocating more resources. India’s generosity would be a key test of its commitment to the subregional grouping.
- Another issue would be for India to counter the impression that BIMSTEC is an India-dominated bloc, a problem that it faced for a long time in SAARC. The suspicion was mutual in SAARC — while India was wary of the smaller neighbours ‘ganging up’ against it, the smaller neighbours were worried that closer integration might lead to India’s domination.To moderate such suspicions, India will need to show sensitivity to the concerns of smaller neighbours.
- Another strategic challenge for India is that China has long desired to be part of the SAARC grouping. Some SAARC members also have their own interests in bringing China into the equation: they want it to balance India’s dominance. China has observer status in SAARC. When this was given, it only increased the demand to make China a full member of SAARC.
Conclusion
India will have to carefully navigate the emerging regional geopolitics, as many of the elements that made SAARC hostage to political rivalry and turned it into a defunct mechanism can re-emerge in BIMSTEC.
