{"id":269682,"date":"2025-03-29T15:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-29T15:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/29\/bimstec-growing-stronger-to-forge-partnerships-with-asean-iora-sg\/"},"modified":"2025-03-29T15:12:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T15:12:05","slug":"bimstec-growing-stronger-to-forge-partnerships-with-asean-iora-sg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/29\/bimstec-growing-stronger-to-forge-partnerships-with-asean-iora-sg\/","title":{"rendered":"BIMSTEC growing stronger, to forge partnerships with ASEAN, IORA: SG"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BIMSTEC<\/div>


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Ahead of the summit of the seven-nation Bay of Bengal grouping in Bangkok, BIMSTEC<\/a> Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey unveiled key outcomes, including the Bangkok Vision 2030<\/a> and underlined that the grouping is set to grow stronger by partnering with other external partners such as Indian Ocean Rim Association<\/a> and ASEAN<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In an online conference organised by Centre for Global India Insights<\/a> (CGII), a think tank focused on global affairs, Pandey underscored the growing political will and commitment of member states to strengthening BIMSTEC, enhancing its effectiveness, and ensuring time-bound implementation of decisions.<\/p>\n

The conference, titled \u201cBolstering BIMSTEC: Mapping the Next Steps,\u201d was held ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/a>\u2019s visit to Bangkok to attend BIMSTEC summit<\/a> and featured eminent diplomats and experts from India, Thailand Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Diplomats from other BIMSTEC countries also attended the conference. <\/p>\n

Besides BIMSTEC Secretary General Pandey, Sumith Nakandala, First Secretary General, BIMSTEC Secretariat; Amb. (Retd.) Riva Ganguly Das<\/a>, India\u2019s Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh; Prof Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka; Dr. Piyanat Soikham, Director, India Studies Centre, Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand; Prabir De, Professor, RIS; and Yash Pal Sachar, Vice-President, Ashok Leyland<\/a> participated in the panel discussion. The conference was moderated by Manish Chand, CEO, Centre for Global India Insights. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur leaders will adopt a joint declaration. They will also adopt a BIMSTEC Bangkok Vision 2030. This is for the first time that BIMSTEC will adopt its own vision document,\u201d said Pandey. <\/p>\n

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Live Events<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\u201cThere will be signing of agreement on maritime transport cooperation<\/a> in the presence of our leaders. A number of other MoU will be signed for partnerships between BIMSTEC Secretariat and its external partners,\u201d he said. The BIMSTEC chief also underlined the importance of the grouping for promoting South-South Cooperation. \u201cThe best way to engage in South-South Cooperation, in my view, is through mini-laterals and regional organizations like BIMSTEC. BIMSTEC continues to enjoy full political support of all its members,\u201d he said. In this age of competing nationalisms, crises,and conflicts, BIMSTEC can emerge as a catalyst for accelerating regional integration, said Manish Chand, CEO, CGII, while placing the importance of BIMSTEC in a changing reginal and international landscape. \u201cThere is a lot of optimism and confidence about the future of the grouping. Enhancing People-to-People and cultural communication, cultural context are absolutely necessary and will impart a greater popular resonance to the group- grouping,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Partnering with ASEAN, IORA<\/h2>\n

Alluding to ongoing efforts by BIMSTEC to forge partnerships with international and regional organizations, Pandey said that the seven-nation grouping will sign an MOU with Indian Ocean Rim Association at the summit in Bangkok. \u201cWe are in close conversation with ASEAN. It\u2019s an organization which is keen to work together with BIMSTEC because two members of ASEAN are members of BIMSTEC, Thailand and Myanmar. And there is a lot that we can learn from experience of ASEAN,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

BIMSTEC & SAARC<\/h2>\n

Eminent panellists at the conference also cautioned against comparing and looking at BIMSTEC through the prism of other regional groupings such as SAARC and ASEAN. \u201cIt is not fair to BIMSTEC, to look at BIMSTEC in the context of SAARC or any other organization because BIMSTEC has its own rationale, its own agenda, its own role, its own history,\u201d said Mr Pandey. \u201cIt has its own challenges and opportunities as a regional organization. We were born 27 years ago. At that time, SAARC was fully functional and at the same time, the need was felt to have an organization which will focus on technical and economic cooperation bringing together countries from South Asia and Southeast Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSAARC is regional, confined to South Asia, whereas BIMSTEC has the advantage of linking two crucial regions \u2014 South Asia and Southeast Asia,” said Amb. (Retd.) Riva Ganguly Das, former secretary (East) in India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs. “There is often a power asymmetry in SAARC, leading to suspicion among smaller countries, but BIMSTEC does not face this issue to the same extent because both India and Thailand provide balance,” she said. <\/p>\n

In a similar vein, Amb. Sumith Nakandala, BIMSTEC\u2019s first Secretary General, said: “Comparisons between BIMSTEC and other regional organizations, like ASEAN, are not valid. We have our own history, our own challenges, and our own trajectory.”
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the summit of the seven-nation Bay of Bengal grouping in Bangkok, BIMSTEC Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey unveiled key outcomes, including the Bangkok Vision 2030 and underlined that the grouping is set to grow stronger by partnering with other external partners such as Indian Ocean Rim Association and ASEAN. In an online conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/118783427.cms","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[29878,172179,207106,70745,93205,207109,22634,7265,69839,161138,207108,207107,2910,48958,207110,19244],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269684,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269682\/revisions\/269684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}