India and Bay of Bengal Community: The Bimstec Experiment (Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation)

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Techno Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a sub regional grouping.  It is positively perceived as bridge between the SAARC and the ASEAN regional groupings, as it embraces five SAARC members, viz., Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan and two ASEAN members, Myanmar and Thailand, around the Bay of Bangal and the Eastern Coast of the Indian Ocean.  Formed in 1997 with the main objective of promoting cooperation among the contiguous countries of the Bay of Bengal, the BIMSTEC has identified six agreed areas of cooperation, viz., trade and investment; technology; transport and communication; energy; tourism; and fisheries.  With the changing image and the recent economic clout, India’s increasing engagement with the ASEAN nations collectively and individually is a positive step in the direction of its Look East policy.  Though not all potential areas of sub regional cooperation in the BIMSTEC have received adequate attention in this volume, it is yet a pioneering effort in launching an exclusive collected work on the subject, as the literature on the BIMSTEC is very inadequate and wanting.