India gains clout as regional trade hub

Smart moves keep India in the limelight.

The conclusion of the first BIMST-EC summit meeting here on Saturday and the launch of several initiatives have confirmed India's emergence as a significant player in the new regional group that will act as an economic bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia.

While India can take credit for many of the decisions that were taken during the weekend meeting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's presence in Bangkok and the government's smart moves on the economic diplomacy front made sure that India was left with few detractors in this group and virtually nobody to question its leadership.

"We did not want a repeat of a SAARC experience at BIMST-EC and that we could avoid it is a source of comfort," said a government official.

India's problem with Pakistan and the fact that India was a very large country compared to the all other members had an adverse effect on talks for regional co-operation under the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC).

One of the first decisions taken at the first BIMST-EC summit meeting was to change the nomenclature of the group. It was decided that BIMST-EC would now be known as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation. Earlier, it was known as Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Co-operation.

Such a change in nomenclature has effectively eliminated the chances of Pakistan becoming a member of this regional group. The prime minister also explained at his press conference that Pakistan did not have any geographical linkage with BIMST-EC.

The suggestion that BIMST-EC be renamed as a group of countries around the Bay of Bengal came originally from India. However, there were not many takers because Bay of Bengal was too closely identified with India.

But smart economic diplomacy ensured that it was the Nepal Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, who suggested in his statement that BIMST-EC should be "aptly known as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation".

After this, there was some discussion, but all other members fell in line and endorsed the proposal for a change in the nomenclature.

Similarly, the manner in which New Delhi was chosen as the venue for the next BIMST-EC summit meeting in 2006 showed India's acceptability among all the member countries.

It was originally suggested that the next venue of the summit meeting could be decided in an alphabetical order. That meant the next venue would be in Bangladesh.

Even before the Bangladesh prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, could respond, the Myanmar prime minister, General Khin Nyunt, suggested that the venue for the next summit meeting should be in India. Singh immediately accepted the suggestion.

Even India's offer to hold conferences on co-operation in the energy and tourism sectors showed that it was taking the lead in two key areas of economic ties in the region.

The meeting decided to develop new hydrocarbon and hydropower projects and interconnection of electricity and natural gas grids among member countries.

The decision to set up a BIMST-EC centre for weather in India and to share India's remote sensing data strengthened the inter-dependence and co-operation among these countries, with India becoming the focal point.

The creation of a joint working group on counter-terrorism among BIMST-EC countries was another major step forward. The decision to introduce BIMST-EC business visas for easy travel to member countries was another decision that would strengthen economic ties in the region.

Key decisions

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• BIMST-EC nomenclature changed
• India to hold next summit
• New initiatives on energy and tourism co-operation
• India to set up a BIMST-EC weather centre and share remote sensing data
• Easier business visa for BIMST-EC countries
• Joint working group on counter-terrorism