India has invited the leaders of the BIMSTEC Member States for the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is in line with the Government's focus on its 'Neighbourhood First' policy.
About:
Full name: The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
What is it? BIMSTEC is an international organization involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia.
Membership: It comprises seven countries lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Objective:
Its primary objective is to improve connectivity between the members through multi-modal transport corridors.
In general, there are ‘14 priority sectors’ which cover almost all areas of cooperation such as energy, handling of refugees, anti-narcotic measures.
Evolution:
Encouraged by India’s Look East Policy (LEP) and Thailand’s Look West Policy it was Initiated in 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
With Myanmar joining the grouping as a full member the same year, the ‘BIST-EC’ was renamed as ‘BIMST-EC’.
With Nepal and Bhutan becoming its members in 2004, the grouping was renamed as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
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