Kathmandu, August 30

India has expressed clear intention to play a greater role to strengthen the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, a grouping of seven countries in and around Bay of Bengal, as its Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a slew of programmes to keep member states engaged for the next few years.

Delivering his speech on the first day of the 4th BIMSTEC summit in Kathmandu today, Indian PM Modi specifically spoke of what his government intended to do to shore up BIMSTEC, an indication that India was willing to take the lead to push the regional grouping forward.

“The plethora of commitments made by PM Modi makes it clear that India wants to play a bigger role in BIMSTEC to strengthen it,” said former foreign secretary Madhu Raman Acharya. “But such devotion by a single country may also send a wrong message, as BIMSTEC is a regional grouping and all member states should be given equal opportunity to set agendas.”

If all the programmes announced today by India are implemented, BIMSTEC member countries will be engaged at least till 2020, beginning with India Mobile Congress in October, which will also host BIMSTEC Ministerial Conclave. Indian PM Modi today extended invitation to all BIMSTEC member countries to the event.

PM Modi said India was also ready to host BIMSTEC Start-up Conclave to engage entrepreneurs of the region. Then in 2020, India is hosting International Buddhist Conclave, as one of the commonalities among BIMSTEC member countries is the Buddhist religion.

“I invite all BIMSTEC member countries as guests of honour to the conclave,” the Indian PM said delivering his speech, which continued for over 13 minutes.

India is also interested in organising a host of other events, including BIMSTEC Youth Summit, BIMSTEC Youth Water Sports Event, BIMSTEC Band Festival and Second BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise.

India has lately started throwing its weight behind BIMSTEC, as it says the regional grouping is important in terms of its Neighbourhood First Policy and Act East Policy to engage with East Asia and beyond.

India has said it will use its northeastern region to promote BIMSTEC, which will work as a bridge to connect South Asian BIMSTEC member countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, with Southeast Asian BIMSTEC member countries, namely Myanmar and Thailand. This will link the Himalayas with the Bay of Bengal.

“To develop northeastern India, we have launched an initiative called Science and Technology Interventions in the Northeastern Region,” Modi said. “We want to include BIMSTEC member countries in this programme.”

India has also said it would provide scholarships and research fellowships to people of BIMSTEC member countries.

Indian PM Modi has offered 24 scholarships to researchers, students and professors of BIMSTEC members at Northeastern Space Application Centre; another 30 scholarships for students of BIMSTEC member states in Nalanda University; and 12 research fellowships on advanced medicine at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research.

He also said Centre for Bay of Bengal Studies will be opened at Nalanda University to conduct research on arts, culture and maritime laws, and short-term training courses would be offered to people of BIMSTEC member countries on tourism, environment, disaster management, renewable energy, agriculture, trade and the World Trade Organisation through Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme.

“We also wish to organise a conference on drugs trafficking, as all of the BIMSTEC member countries have been victims of transnational criminal activities such as drug trafficking, which is closely related to terror activities,” the Indian PM said, adding, “We have a long way to go to deepen regional integration.... In this interconnected world, no country can walk alone. We have to walk together, provide support to each other and complement each other’s initiatives.”