Bay of Opportunity: Uniting India and BIMSTEC for Regional Prosperity
After three postponements and the severe earthquake that shook Thailand and Myanmar, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) scheduled its sixth summit in Bangkok for April 4, 2025. The decision to proceed with the summit underscored not only the resilience of the host city but also the enduring relevance of this year’s agenda—BIMSTEC: Prosperous, Resilient and Open. Leaders of the seven member states—India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan—explored ways of infusing greater momentum into this regional organisation through various institutional and capacity-building measures. This was the first in-person gathering of the regional leaders after the fourth summit in Nepal in 2018.