In Conversation with Secretary General of BIMSTEC
Watch it on the NIICE Nepal YouTube channel
Event Report
On 11th January 2025, NIICE hosted His Excellency Indra Mani Pandey, Secretary General of BIMSTEC, to speak on the role of BIMSTEC while facilitating cooperation and engagement among the member states. This especially emphasized the active participation of Nepal in advancing the same.
Dr Pramod Jaiswal, Research Director at NIICE moderated the talk and introduced the audience to the political, economic and cultural meeting points of South Asia and Southeast Asian countries and indicated that the lecture would revolve around broader questions regarding the above-mentioned indices. The conversation moved forward in a question-and-answer interactive session between the ambassador and the host. Four major questions circumventing the key issues to BIMSTEC were tabled. The first question was directed towards the role BIMSTEC could play in bringing together South and Southeast Asia for cultural and economic cooperation. As the discussion continued Ambassador Pandey began his lecture by stressing the traditional and non-traditional security challenges apprehended by countries abutting the Bay of Bengal region, which propelled states like India to forge ties with the ASEAN countries, who conversely cashed in on the necessity of “looking west”. It was underlined that the idea of BIMSTEC was conceived and manifested in 1997 by India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand to focus principally on technical and economic cooperation with the accession of Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan. As the things processed wider concerns came into being for which the geographical construct of the organization had to cross a few major thresholds. In this sense, BIMSTEC subsequently divided its work among almost 15 different sectors to integrate the varied economies of the member states, and obviously to further financial cooperation and development. However, the need of the hour was to address developmental challenges and overcome political obstacles. Some major areas which got special attention were transport and connectivity, implementation of developmental agendas and promoting regional integration.
As the session continued the attention was drawn to the audience by further requesting the Ambassador to elaborate on the critical sectors, the holistic development which would foment stronger association amongst the seven member states of BIMSTEC. At the end, the Secretary General of the organization mentioned the initiatives of the member states and exemplified how each state was leading individual developmental projects in various sectors. It was noted therefore that, Bangladesh was looking at broad dimensions of blue economy, trade and investment; Bhutan was understood to be the foremost in advancing the cause of environmental changes and mountain economy; India was concentrating on traditional and non-traditional security challenges; Myanmar zero edition agricultural and food security, with Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan stressing on people to people ties, tourism, culture, poverty alleviation, science and technology, health and human resource development and connectivity projects.
Ambassador Pandey further referred to the Kathmandu Summit of 2018 of BIMSTEC which saw the introduction of a master plan for connectivity, agreed upon by the member states. Passing points were also added to the necessity of forming transnational linkages and on the individual projects of member states. Circling back to critical questions about energy cooperation, referrals were also made to the Memorandum of Understanding of 2019 which shed light on “grid connectivity” and the technical aspects of electrical-energy distribution, which often brought about disputes about the different sources of power, feeding the grids and regarding the supply and consumption aspect. The close association of India, Nepal and Bhutan here was applauded.
Focusing next on the investment issue the Ambassador revisited the Framework Agreement of 2004 which sought to facilitate dispute resolution in matters relating to trade, goods and services etc. Areas of possible development, for example, the blue economy were highlighted in due course. Close observations were also made with regard to climate change and the Ambassador highlighted the intimate cooperation of weather and meteorological departments of the BIMSTEC countries to combat natural disasters.
The discussion proceeded to the next phase focusing on the cultural attributes of BIMSTEC and how shared historical and civilization ties could solidify inter-state relations among the member states. Nepal’s proactive role in fostering regional ties was appreciated and its innovative suggestions regarding the involvement of each state’s Home Minister to aggrandize the voice of the BIMSTEC were recorded. It was also stated cultural diplomacy had indeed taken a backseat in the entire business of the association, and while groups such as the Buddhist circuit existed nothing much had been done. The role of Bhutan was identified in ideating the BIMSTEC Cultural Industries Observatory and Commission. The function of tourism was vindicated in the following minutes, with important references being made to visa issues and the need for popularizing the Bay of Bengal region.
In the concluding part of the dialogue, Ambassador Pandey stressed how Nepal could access high-end infrastructure to pursue developmental projects and essentially how logistical inequality could be ameliorated. Financial assistance and capacity-building problems were emphasized to be indispensable and the observance of the Framework of Agreement was determined to be all-important. Finally, end remarks were made focusing on the role of think tanks in familiarizing foreign policies the ordinary citizens of the BIMSTEC countries
This event report was prepared by Sumedha Ganguly Research Intern at NIICE.