India to lead security pillar in Bay of Bengal grouping

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation countries on Wednesday adopted a much-awaited charter and a connectivity roadmap at a virtual summit with its leaders approving a major reorganisation of the grouping while entrusting India to helm its security pillar.

Participating in the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a $1 million ad-hoc grant for the operational budget for the BIMSTEC secretariat and another $3 million assistance to revive the grouping's centre for weather and climate.

India has been making concerted efforts to make BIMSTEC a vibrant forum for regional cooperation as initiatives under SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) were not moving forward for a variety of reasons.

Besides India, the BIMSTEC comprises Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.

The BIMSTEC summit, hosted by Sri Lanka, finalised three documents that will facilitate having a mutual legal assistance treaty, setting up a centre for technology transfer in Colombo and providing for cooperation among diplomatic academies of the member nations.

Shortly after the summit concluded, the ministry of external affairs said the adoption of the BIMSTEC charter has given the grouping an 'international personality' and reflected its 'significant evolution.'

Rudrendra Tandon, an additional secretary in the MEA, said at a media briefing that the signing of the BIMSTEC charter and finalisation of the transport connectivity roadmap was the main outcome at the summit.

"Henceforth, the BIMSTEC cooperation activities will take place in seven pillars. Each pillar will be led by one of the member-States who will be primarily responsible for furthering cooperation," he said.

Tandon said it was decided that India will lead the security pillar.

Referring to Modi's participation, he said the prime minister's approach was to propose to the leaders that there was a need to accelerate the pace of cooperation and that the grouping should not rest after signing the charter.

Tandon said Modi also spoke about the need to move forward in areas of connectivity, disaster management, marine cooperation and economic integration agenda.

He said the security agenda is a "central prerequisite" for any sort of development cooperation.

Asked about cooperation under the security pillar, Tandon said the activities will be based on the potential and capacities of the platform.

"Currently, our approach on the security pillar is to try two things -- firstly establish the highest quality norms for combating terrorism and transnational crimes and other non-traditional crimes and at the same time put in place all the legal mechanisms required to enable our law enforcement agencies to collaborate as closely as possible," he said.

He said trade facilitation could play an important role in economic integration.

On the transport master plan, Tandon said it will have a "multiplier effect" on logistics and that various connectivity plans will join up if the member countries follow the framework.

Asked about Myanmar's participation at the summit as it is being ruled by the powerful military that grabbed power in a coup last year, Tandon said that country is an important member of the grouping.

"For the success of cooperation activities of this platform, we require all countries to be present... Myanmar is an important member of the BIMSTEC," he said.

In view of the special commitment that India has to develop the BIMSTEC platform further, Modi used the occasion to make announcements on some Indian initiatives which we hope will further the BIMSTEC agenda in a more accelerated manner, Tandon said.

"In this regard, he (Modi) announced a $1 million ad-hoc grant to the BIMSTEC secretariat's operational budget...He also announced a $3 million grant to revive the BIMSTEC centre for weather and climate which is an important part of the disaster management and risk reduction agenda," Tandon said.

Elaborating on the BIMSTEC charter, he said the grouping now has "an international personality, it has an emblem, it has a flag, it has formally listed purpose and principles that it is going to adhere to."

"That represents a fairly significant evolution of the grouping a process which was happening since 2004 or so," he added.