By Vas Shenoy
July 31, 2024
Credits @FFHR.CZ
India’s pivot to the East is keeping Beijing awake at night. If India continues its relentless focus on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) in the west and BIMSTEC in the East, it will counter China at its own game, trade. For now, New Delhi’s efforts and strategy seem relentless.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has been operational since 1997 however since its charter has come into effect in May. Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar hosted a second foreign ministers retreat in July and on the 26th of July, the BIMSTEC security chiefs met in Myanmar’s capital city Naypyitaw where India was represented by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
India is finalizing plans for the first-ever BIMSTEC Business Summit to be held 6-8th August in New Delhi, despite the presidency being held by Thailand . Trade ministers from the seven BIMSTEC member countries, including Myanmar, are likely to attend the summit.
It is expected the summit will host over a hundred delegates from government, industry, think tanks and chambers of commerce. The business summit will seek broader engagement on the BIMSTEC free trade agreement (FTA), which has seen slow progress since it was signed in early 2004. So far the twenty rounds of talks held by the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC), progress has been slow. The business summit will attempt at streamlining customs processes between the BIMSTEC countries, coordinate the Chambers of Commerce and incentivize trade.
A sixth BIMSTEC summit is slated in Thailand for September with Prime Minister Modi already confirming his attendance. At the September summit leaders are expected to sign the BIMSTEC Agreement on Maritime Transport Cooperation to improve regional connectivity — a foundational aim of this new regional organization.
Despite this enthusiasm east, the violence in Myanmar looms in the background. Myanmar, one of the seven BIMSTEC member states, has been embroiled in civil war since the 2021 coup. BIMSTEC’s charter allows for the grouping to target transnational crime. India leads the vertical on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime, Disaster Management and Energy in the grouping. Violence in Myanmar has a direct effect on human trafficking in neighboring Bangladesh as well as on regional drug trade and security, potentially allowing the grouping’s members to address this issue-something India plans to do. The violence in Myanmar has already slowed projects such as the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway and cause concern to Indian investments in the country such as the Sittwe port.
BIMSTEC is one pivot to the East, India’s foreign Minister Dr. S.Jaishankar also participated in the 14th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting organized in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus six format conference also allowed for ASEAN Foreign Ministers to meet with their Indian counterpart as a group as well as in individual bilateral meetings. This gathering underscores the growing importance of their partnership and highlights India's efforts to strengthen its ties with ASEAN countries while upholding ASEAN centrality in the Indo-Pacific region.
The relationship between India and ASEAN is longstanding, with centuries of interaction between the two regions. In recent decades, these ties have been solidified and enhanced. The ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership is paving the way for deeper integration in trade, security, and investment, as well as fostering educational and cultural exchanges.
However the “ASEAN way” has been often criticized and its failure painfully obvious in its inability to tackle the violence in Myanmar. Myanmar and Thailand form India’s bridges to the ASEAN, now both countries form a close part of BIMSTEC as well. The summit in Thailand in September may offer India the opportunity to mediate a solution between Bangladesh and Myanmar on the Rohingya refugee issue. BIMSTEC gathers and projects India’s influence in the Bay of Bengal. With the recent failed visit of Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, to China and the violence in Bangladesh which seems to have been hijacked by the Islamists, BIMSTEC can be that pillar which establishes India’s leadership in the Bay of Bengal and South East Asia. BIMSTEC can succeed where ASEAN has failed.
While July ended with the Quad Foreign Ministers summit in Tokyo, with the United States, India, Japan and Australia renewing and strengthening their commitment to a Free and Open Indo Pacific (FOIP), BIMSTEC is India’s trade pivot to the east. It has the potential to be the trade corridor which will make India central to trade and connectivity between Europe, South and South-East Asia. IMEC, BIMSTEC and Quad will together make India the center of Europe-South East Asia trade and security, cutting transit times for cargo and energy, allowing for more efficient data connectivity and cabling.
While BIMSTEC involves Thailand and Myanmar, India should intend for its connectivity benefits to also reach the ASEAN countries with whom a Free trade agreement already exists since 2010. As Europe is still trying to pacify a belligerent and aggressive China, India is busy forging alliances to try and counter China in its backyard on land and sea and most importantly, by trade.
Source: ffhr.cz
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