Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Myanmar on Monday to attend the BIMSTEC Summit, making a strong pitch for giving a fillip to India’s Look East policy and explore ways to enhance connectivity, transport, trade, tourism and other linkages to all the northeastern states.
Dr. Singh, who is travelling to Myanmar after a gap of nearly two years to attend the two-day summit, is accompanied by National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon.
“Security challenges both natural and man-made, require our collective vision and determination to be overcome,” Singh said in a statement in New Delhi before his departure in what could be his last foreign trip as the Prime Minister.
BIMSTEC is an expression of India’s Look East Policy of the 1990s, coinciding with Thailand’s Look West Policy.
The seven members — India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal — bring together over 20 per cent of the world population, which is about 1.5 billion, and a GDP of over USD 2.5 trillion.
Dr. Singh said the BIMSTEC lay at the crossroads between SAARC and ASEAN, drawing its energy from the natural convergence of the countries around the Bay of Bengal.
“In the security sphere, we have steadily put in place enabling legal instruments for regional approaches to international terrorism, transnational crime, drug trafficking and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, the need for which is more salient in today’s integrated world than ever before,” he said.
“Connectivity and sub-regional cooperation in trade and investment, energy, climate, tourism, agriculture and other areas provide the spark for the growth engine in our region,” he said.
Dr. Singh stressed that peace, stability and development in BIMSTEC countries was ‘indispensable’ for the forward march of Asia as a whole. BIMSTEC has evolved and matured further as a group since the last summit in New Delhi in 2008, he said.
Dr. Singh stressed that India’s bilateral relations with BIMSTEC countries are among its most important in the world.
Several BIMSTEC centres are being launched throughout the region, including three in India, to foster greater technical exchanges between member countries, he said.
A Framework Agreement for BIMSTEC Free Trade Area was signed in Phuket, Thailand in 2004, which commits the parties to negotiate FTAs in goods, services and investments.
Dr. Singh will be joined by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh who are already here.
During the visit, Dr. Singh will have bilateral meetings with Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other leaders.
Dr. Singh’s talks with Mr. Rajapaksa takes place three months after he had skipped a visit to the island nation to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) due to pressure from Tamil parties and within government.
Colombo has rejected a call by the UN for an independent international probe into allegations of war crimes.
Sri Lanka has come under increasing international pressure to probe allegations of excessive civilian deaths during the final battle that ended in May 2009. A crucial UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka is coming up for vote in Geneva this month.
Dr. Singh’s meeting with Ms. Hasina comes in the backdrop of delay in signing the long-pending agreements on Teesta river water sharing treaty and India’s ratification of land boundary agreement with that country.
This will also be Singh’s first meeting with Hasina after her party Awami League coasted to a landslide victory in the January 5 parliamentary election, bagging 231 seats in the face of a boycott by BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance.
The talks are expected to touch on the agreement on Teesta river treaty which was put on hold after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed reservation over the quantum of water to be given to Bangladesh and had opted out of Singh’s entourage to Dhaka in September, 2011.
The Summit is also expected to discuss steps to bolster cooperation in counter-terrorism. India has led negotiations and finalised the BIMSTEC Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.
India also wishes to see BIMSTEC promote economic and energy cooperation, encourage cultural links and strengthen security contacts.
