Context: BIMSTEC gets the ‘legal personality’ status with its Charter coming into force on 20th May 2024. It enables the admission of new members and observers and enables the conclusion of agreements with countries or sub-regional, regional and international organizations and institutions.
About BIMSTEC:
- It is a regional organization comprising seven Member States around the Bay of Bengal region.
- BIMSTEC constitutes a unique link between South and South-East Asia with five Members from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two from South-East Asia (Myanmar and Thailand).
- The organization came into being in 1997 through the 'Bangkok Declaration'.
- Permanent Secretariat of BIMSTEC has been operational since September 2014 in Dhaka.
- Initially, the economic bloc was formed with four Member States with the acronym 'BIST-EC' (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Following inclusion of Myanmar on 22 December 1997 during a special Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, the Group was renamed 'BIMST-EC' (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
- With the admission of Nepal and Bhutan at the 6th Ministerial Meeting (February 2004, Thailand), the name of the grouping was changed to 'Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation' (BIMSTEC).
- BIMSTEC Summit Meetings shall be held once every two years, preceded by the Ministerial Meeting, and be hosted by the Member State holding the BIMSTEC Chairmanship.
- All decisions of the Summit Meetings shall be made on the basis of consensus.
Salient Features of BIMSTEC Charter
5th BIMSTEC Summit 2022:
- It was hosted in virtual mode by Sri Lanka.
- The Summit’s theme “Towards a Resilient Region, Prosperous Economies, Healthy People” captures the main current priorities of member states, and the efforts by BIMSTEC to develop cooperation activities that support member state’s programmes to deal with the economic and development consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The main outcome of the Summit was the adoption and signing of the BIMSTEC Charter, which formalizes the grouping into an organization made up of members states that are littoral to, and dependent upon, the Bay of Bengal.