Jaishankar suggests expansion, local solutions for BIMSTEC

India on Thursday made a big push to connect South Asia with SE Asia through The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar hosting his counterparts from the group's member states, including Myanmar, and exploring possibility of expanding the group to include three SE Asian states that have Bay of Bengal linkages.

In his opening remarks at the BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers' Retreat Jaishankar called upon the BIMSTEC countries to come up with own solutions which becomes even more imperative given the current global and regional scenario.

"The BIMSTEC Charter, for a start, has come into effect from May 20 this year. The global and regional developments also make it imperative that we find more solutions amongst ourselves."

He said there are long-standing goals such as capacity building and economic cooperation that have acquired a new urgency and not least, a grouping that is so complementary and so congenial in its membership should surely harbour higher aspirations.

"Our hope is that these would be expressed as shared and ambitious BIMSTEC Vision," said Jaishankar.

He said BIMSTEC countries had last met in a similar format in Bangkok in July last year.

"Much has happened since then and this should spur their endeavours to deepen and broaden the activities of BIMSTEC," he added.

Jaishankar said that for India, BIMSTEC represents the intersection of its 'Neighbourhood First' outlook, the 'Act East Policy' and the 'SAGAR' vision.

"Each of these endeavours is being purposed with a specific focus on the Bay of Bengal. Our collaborative potential have long remained under realised," he said.

"Our challenge is to change that for the better, and to do so rapidly. The retreat is meant to exchange ideas openly, candidly and fruitfully. We all benefited from the last such exercise in Bangkok. This one now has a particular importance as it serves to prepare strong outcomes for the Summit to be held later in the year," he added.

"The retreat in New Delhi would revolve around connectivity, institutional building, cooperation in trade and business, collaboration in health and space, digital public infrastructure, capacity building and societal exchanges, as well as weighing on the merits of new mechanisms," he added.

Thursday's meet will be followed by BIMSTEC NSA meet here also in July. India has been taking the lead in organizing NSA level meetings for BIMSTEC as it is the lead group in Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime, Disaster Management and Energy in BIMSTEC. BIMSTEC meet is unique as it gives India an opportunity to engage with Myanmar.

India is planning a mega BIMSTEC Business summit in August which will be the first of its kind and PM Narendra Modi may attend BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok in September. ET has learnt that the Indian government is planning to set up three BIMSTEC centres of excellence.