The organisation also suggested trilateral sub-regional cooperation among Bangladesh-India-Myanmar for moving forward with massive development. Despite many efforts by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the three-decade old regional forum could not be made effective due to big-brotherly attitude of a single member country.
ORF’s distinguished fellow Pinak R Chakravarty, a former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, mentioned all this to a group of visiting Bangladeshi journalists on Monday last. The newsmen were in the Indian capital on an invitation of the External Affairs Ministry. He called upon the Bangladesh government to concentrate very carefully on BIMSTEC.
The former diplomat said connectivity in the region could be a good gesture among the three states. He mentioned that maritime boundaries have been settled and Bangladesh-Myanmar and India could work in a tri-lateral way to explore energy in the Bay of Bengal. We can share our resources to explore energy and all the three countries would be benefitted. Noting that terrorism is a problem in the region, he said Bangladesh and India would have to set up better structures to fight the menace.
Sovereign equality, territorial integrity, political independence and non-interference in internal affairs are some of the major principles clearly defined in the Charter of SAARC. The SAARC Charter kept bilateral issues out of the purview of the SAARC and emphasized on multilateral cooperation. The member states of SAARC were free to forge any other bilateral and multilateral cooperation as they would deem fit. So BIMSTEC would be SAARC minus Pakistan plus Myanmar and Thailand so as to suit the wishes of our big neighbour who clearly feels that dealing with Pakistan on any issue is a waste of time. It would make Pakistan isolated and something of a pariah state with membership only of the UN and no local groupings. That is Delhi wishes to be regional boss with no opposition whatsoever and others should go by its dictates.
But would it be good for Bangladesh is, of course, our main query. We need major concessions from our neighbours in economic areas like trade to grow economically. Will an association with Thailand and Myanmar enable us to move freely without visas or enhance trade – that is the big question? How would our security issues be secured – surely increased communication brings with it great risks. It is true that the three decades old SAARC has failed to deliver. But that is mainly for the indifferent attitude of one or two member countries. In our view, withdrawing from SAARC umbrella and then going under the Indian fold is no good option either.
