India hosts BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers amid raging Myanmar crisis

• The seven-member Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) should find solutions to the regional challenges within itself, India’s External Affairs Minister said, addressing the first BIMSTEC Foreign Ministers’ retreat.

Highlights:

• The meeting assumes significance as it is being held against the backdrop of major developments in Myanmar, where the military junta has been receiving battlefield setbacks against dozens of ethnic armed organizations (EAO).
• “Global and regional developments also make it imperative that we find more solutions among ourselves.
• 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 harbor higher aspirations.
• This is the first time such an event was organized since the Charter of BIMSTEC came into effect on May 20, which marked a landmark development in the evolution of the organization.
• The developments in Myanmar pose a major issue before the BIMSTEC as instability there has put a question mark on a number of developmental and connectivity projects that were aimed at firming up ties among countries like Nepal, Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand.
• The External Affairs Ministry is yet to clarify if India will extend humanitarian assistance to the affected civilian population inside Myanmar.
• Till now, assistance has been limited to the displaced population and personnel of the Myanmar military who sought refuge in Mizoram.
• India has maintained a cautious approach to the crisis in Myanmar where the EAOs have gained control over the trade routes and territories that are close to the international borders.
• Countering transnational crimes including cyber, narcotics and illegal arms is a shared priority.

Prelims Takeaway:

• BIMSTEC
• India- Myanmar