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Article:
- Harsh Vardhan, Professor of International Relationshas discussed about India’s interest in BIMSTEC.
Important Analysis:
2. Indian PM is schedule to attend Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisector Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in Kathmandu this week.
3. India expecting this could be another milestone, as BRICS-BIMSTEC meeting in 2016 brought regional, strategic and economic interests in favor of India.
4. Why India Pursuing Interest in BIMSTEC
- Stagnated SAARC summit has limited the scope of India’s economic growth and improvement in regional governance.
- To isolate Pakistan and recover losses occurred from SAARC.
- The main motivation for India is to ensure region does not lag behind.
- Another desire is to link South Asia with South East Asia which is economically prosperous.
- Main reason for pushing BIMSTEC arrangement is to achieve common goals in South Asia region.
5. However India needs to be little cautious after it has failed to gain from SAARC.
6. During 18th SAARC summit in 2014 India proposed SAARC motor vehicle agreement however it couldn’t progress after Pakistan opposed it.
7. India also proposed SAARC satellite however Pakistan refused to participate.
8. Indian PM emphasized regional integration with or without SAARC.
9. This compelled India to sign BBIB motor vehicle agreement with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN) in 2015.
10. Challenges for India in context of BIMSTEC:
- India is a largest contributor to BIMSTEC secretariat budget. It may need to allocate more resources as Secretariat is planning to expand its human resources and number of officials.
- Small neighbors which are willing to gain from India economic rise may raise concern over Indian dominating attitude.
- India dominant attitude in SAARC did not play well as few nations in SAARC was trying to accord fullmembership status to China to counter India position. However this did not work and led to defunct SAARC.
- India need to be careful to ensure same situation shall not occur within BIMSTEC.
