Reviving BIMSTEC and the Bay of Bengal region

Constantino Xavier
Published : 27 August 2018, 01:49 PM
Updated : 27 August 2018, 01:49 PM

Despite attracting growing attention as the strategic heart of the Indo-Pacific, the Bay of Bengal remains one of the world's least integrated regions, with abysmal levels of connectivity and formidable barriers to cooperation. To overcome these divides and foster regionalism, Bangladesh and other countries in the region must invest in multilateralism by strengthening BIMSTEC, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

Founded in 1997, in Bangkok, and with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand as its seven member-states, BIMSTEC's fourth summit will finally take place at the end of this week, in Kathmandu. But unless its leaders use this occasion to revive the institution and endow it with resources to realise regional integration, we will be left, once again, with mere speeches and declarations of intent.

Bangladesh has been playing a crucial role, not the least by hosting the BIMSTEC Secretariat in Dhaka, since 2014, and now having deputed Md Shahidul Islam as the organisation's second secretary general. Recently commenting on BIMSTEC's track record of "missed opportunities," Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali noted that "it is time to look back, reflect and review our past performances; renew our commitment and reframe our strategy for the journey ahead".

Now is the right time for such introspection because the region will not prosper without strong multilateral mechanisms that harness its economic potential, address transnational challenges, and manage geostrategic pressures.

First, while the Bay of Bengal hosts one-fourth of the world's population and several high-growth economies, its intra-regional trade barely exceeds 5 percent, compared to thirty percent within ASEAN. India's land-based trade with neighbouring Myanmar, for example, amounts to its total trade with Nicaragua. And visa restrictions make it ironically easier for a European, Chinese or American to visit BIMSTEC countries than for people from within the region to travel across its borders.

Second, the Bay also faces significant non-traditional security challenges that can only be addressed cooperatively, including cross-border criminal and insurgent organisations, increasing refugee populations, and a degrading ecosystem. Natural calamities, including some of the world's deadliest cyclones, have taken the lives of almost half a million people in BIMSTEC states in the last twenty years alone. None of these issues can be tackled in isolation by any individual country.

Finally, several geostrategic connectivity agendas are now converging and competing in the Bay of Bengal region, including China's Belt and Road Initiative, India's Act East policy, the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, or ASEAN's new Western focus. Instead of competing against each other and playing off India, China, Japan or the United States, which risks militarisation and destabilisation, Bangladesh and other Bay of Bengal states will benefit more from working together and develop their own regional governance outlook, norms and institutions.

As I show in my recent study "Bridging the Bay of Bengal: Toward a Stronger BIMSTEC," with its multilateral mandate, BIMSTEC is the ideal platform to address these challenges, but it will only succeed if its seven member-states take concrete steps to strengthen the organisation and set priorities.

First, they must express political commitment by holding summits and ministerial meetings more regularly – if leaders don't meet frequently at the highest level, officials can't be expected to follow up and do their part of the work. This week's summit is being held after more than a year of successive delays.

Second, the BIMSTEC Secretariat must be empowered with greater autonomy, as well as more human, technical and financial resources to drive the organisation's agenda. BIMSTEC has just one secretary general and three directors, compared to ASEAN's staff of more than one hundred, this is one of the world's weakest regional organisations.

Third, member-states must come to a free trade agreement (FTA), however limited in scope. Negotiations for a BIMSTEC FTA have been dragging on for more than fifteen years, and economic growth is bound to stagnate in the region unless borders cease to be barriers to the free flow of goods, capital and labour.

Finally, BIMSTEC must focus on priority areas by reducing the excessive number of fourteen different working groups, from tourism to climate change. It must prioritise the development of cross-border infrastructure and the blue water economy. Particular attention must be paid to multi-modal projects and inland waterways that link the Bay of Bengal coastal ports to the South and Southeast Asian landlocked hinterlands. Bangladesh's cooperation is key to the connectivity and developmental priorities of Nepal, Bhutan and Northeast India.

A stronger BIMSTEC will allow Bangladesh to position itself as one of Asia's middle powers, invested in greater multilateralism as a way to moderate rising geopolitical rivalries, especially between India and China. While SAARC's immediate future remains uncertain, Dhaka must not bank on Delhi alone to revive the agenda of regional cooperation. Nor should it see BIMSTEC as being incompatible with other sub-regional initiatives, including BBIN. Most importantly, Bangladesh should not allow punctual bilateral tensions with Myanmar to deflect from its far more important and strategic goal of fostering a more connected and prosperous Bay of Bengal community.