Bimstec organization

● Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic

Cooperation (BIMSTEC) comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand brings together 1.5 billion people – 21% of the
world population, and a combined GDP of over US$ 2.5 trillion.
● Myanmar was admitted in Dec 1997 and the organisation was renamed as
BIMST-EC.
● Thegrouping expanded when Nepal and Bhutan were admitted in Feb
2004.
● The grouping’s name was changed to BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative
for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) at the 1st Summit
Meeting held in Bangkok in Jul 2004.

SIGNIFICANCE-

● BIMSTEC organizes inter-governmental interactions through Summits,

Ministerial Meetings, Senior Officials Meetings and Expert Group Meetings
and through BIMSTEC Working Group (BWG) based in Bangkok.
● There have been two BIMSTEC Summit meetings (Bangkok Jul 2004,
New Delhi Nov 2008), and 13 Foreign Ministerial meetings (13 th MM held in
Nay Pyi Taw in Jan 2011) and 15 SOMs so far.
● Myanmar is hosting the 3rd BIMSTEC Summit, 14th Ministerial Meeting, 16th
SOM and 2nd Preparatory meetings from 1-4 March, 2014 in Nay Pyi Taw.
BIMSTEC Chairmanship rotates among member countries
(alphabetically).
● BIMSTEC has emerged as an alternative regional platform for SAARC.
● With 5 five countries from SAARC and two from ASEAN(Myanmar and
Thailand), BIMSTEC is a bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia.
● It thus offers scope for discussions on sub-regional cooperation.
● Bay of bengal is a reservoir of natural gas and also it is the route of 25%
og global trade route, hence BIMSTEC is very crucial for maintaining
regional harmony.

Importance for india-

● BIMSTEC has identified 14 priority areas where a member country takes
the lead. India is lead country for -
1. Transport & Communication,
2. Tourism,
3. Environment & Disaster Management and
4. Counter Terrorism & Transnational Crime.

● As the region’s largest economy, India has a lot at stake. BIMSTEC

connects not only South and Southeast Asia, but also the ecologies
of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal. For India, it is a natural
platform to fulfil our key foreign policy priorities of ‘Neighborhood
First’ and ‘Act East’.
● For New Delhi, one key reason for engagement is in the vast potential that
is unlocked with stronger connectivity. Almost 300 million people, or
roughly one-quarter of India’s population, live in the four coastal states
adjacent to the Bay of Bengal (Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, and
West Bengal). And, about 45 million people, who live in landlocked
Northeastern states, will have the opportunity to connect via the Bay of
Bengal to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand, opening up possibilities in
terms of development.
● From the strategic perspective, the Bay of Bengal, a funnel to the
Malacca straits, has emerged a key theatre for an increasingly assertive
China in maintaining its access route to the Indian Ocean.
● As China mounts assertive activities in the Bay of Bengal region, with
increased submarine movement and ship visits in the Indian Ocean, it is in
India’s interest to consolidate its internal engagement among the
BIMSTEC countries.
● An India-Myanmar-Thailand highway is one of the key projects that figures
in a big way in the government’s Act East (earlier Look East) policy.
● With the India-Pakistan bickering coming in way of a smooth functioning of
the Saarc, groupings such as BIMSTEC can take forward the concept of
regional cooperation in a different manner.
● A BIMSTEC Information Centre was established in Jul 2007 in New Delhi.
The Ministry of Tourism organized a meeting on BIMSTEC Information
Centre and contribution to Tourism Fund (1st JWG on Tourism) in Sep 2013
in New Delhi.
● BIMSTEC Transport Infrastructure and Logistics Study (BTILS) conducted
by ADB in 2007 was endorsed in the 12th Ministerial Meeting (Dec 2009).
● Under Counter-terrorism and transnational crime (CTTC) india leads the
Legal and Law Enforcement Issues .
 ● India is establishing BIMSTEC Weather and Climate Centre at National
Weather Forecasting Centre at NOIDA.
● Deptt. AYUSH in association with MEA hosted two Workshops on IPR
issues and Regulatory issues in Traditional Medicines in October 2011 in
New Delhi. Since 2005, India has granted 30 slots of AYUSH scholarships
to study in India in the fields of traditional medicine in undergraduate, post-
graduate and doctorate programs.

NATO
● The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (, also called the North Atlantic
Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European
and North American countries. The organization implements the North
Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.
● NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent
member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any
external party.
● NATO's Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the
headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.

MEMBERS-

● At present, NATO has 30 members.

● In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
● The other member countries are: Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany
(1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999),
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia
(2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017) and North
Macedonia (2020).
Activities and achievements
● Following the end of the Cold War, the first operations, Anchor Guard in
1990 and Ace Guard in 1991, were prompted by the Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait.
● Bosnia and Herzegovina intervention-

○ The Bosnian War began in 1992, as a result of the break-up of

Yugoslavia. The deteriorating situation led to United Nations
Security Council Resolution 816 on 9 October 1992, ordering a no-
fly zone over central Bosnia and Herzegovina, which NATO began
enforcing on 12 April 1993 with Operation Deny Flight.
○ In August 1995, a two-week NATO bombing campaign, Operation
Deliberate Force, began against the Army of the Republika Srpska,
after the Srebrenica genocide.[37] Further NATO air strikes helped
bring the Yugoslav wars to an end, resulting in the Dayton
Agreement in November 1995.
● Kosovo intervention-
○ Operation Allied Force targeted the military capabilities of what was
then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the crisis, NATO
also deployed one of its international reaction forces, the ACE
Mobile Force (Land), to Albania as the Albania Force (AFOR), to
deliver humanitarian aid to refugees from Kosovo.
○ International peace plan was accepted and thus ending the Kosovo
war.
● Afghanistan-
○ The September 11 attacks in the United States caused NATO to
invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter for the first time in the
organization's history. The Article states that an attack on any
member shall be considered to be an attack on all.
○ The alliance showed unity: On 16 April 2003, NATO agreed to take
command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF),
which included troops from 42 countries.
○ ISAF was initially charged with securing Kabul and surrounding
areas from the Taliban, al Qaeda and factional warlords, so as to
allow for the establishment of the Afghan Transitional Administration.
● IRAQ training mission-
 ○ during the Iraq War, NATO formed the NATO Training Mission –
Iraq, a training mission to assist the Iraqi security forces in
conjunction with the US-led MNF-I. The NATO Training Mission-Iraq
(NTM-I) was established at the request of the Iraqi Interim
Government under the provisions of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1546. The aim of NTM-I was to assist in the development
of Iraqi security forces training structures and institutions so that Iraq
can build an effective and sustainable capability that addresses the
needs of the nation.
● Gulf of aden anti-piracy-
○ August 2009, NATO deployed warships in an operation to protect
maritime traffic in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from
Somali pirates, and help strengthen the navies and coast guards of
regional states.
○ Operation Ocean Shield focuses on protecting the ships of
Operation Allied Provider which are distributing aid as part of the
World Food Programme mission in Somalia.
● Libya intervention-
○ During the Libyan Civil War, violence between protesters and the
Libyan government escalated, and on 17 March 2011 led to the
passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which
called for a ceasefire, and authorized military action to protect
civilians.

Should india have a dialogue with NATO-

● During the Cold War, India’s refusal was premised on its non-alignment.
That argument had little justification once the Cold War ended during
1989-91.
● NATO has built partnerships with many neutral and non-aligned states.
NATO has regular consultations with both Russia and China, despite the
gathering tensions with them in recent years. So India can consider a
dialogue with NATO.
● It would help in having regular contact with a military alliance, most of
whose members are well-established partners of India.
● India has military exchanges with many members of NATO — including the
US, Britain, and France — in bilateral and minilateral formats. Hence a
collective engagement with NATO shouldnt be problematic.
● India does military exercises with two countries with which it has serious
security issues namely- Pakistan and China under shanghai cooperation
organization.
● India needs to stop viewing Europe from british’s view in the colonial
period. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union
demanded a fresh approach to Europe.
● To play any role in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and NATO need partners like
India, Australia and Japan. India knows that no single power can produce
stability and security in the Indo-Pacific. Hence India should actively
participate in such and organization.
● A sustained dialogue between India and NATO could facilitate productive
exchanges in a range of areas, including terrorism, changing geopolitics;
the evolving nature of military conflict, the role of emerging military
technologies, and new military doctrines.
● an institutionalised engagement with NATO should make it easier for Delhi
to deal with the military establishments of its 30 member states. On a
bilateral front, each of the members has much to offer in strengthening
India’s national capabilities.
● Russia being an important strategic partner of India is already unhappy
with India's association through QUAD and alliance with Washington,
putting NATO into that mix is unlikely to make much difference.
● Both Russia and China have intensive bilateral engagement with Europe,
hence India's reluctance to join NATO doesn't make any sense.
● Delhi’s continued reluctance to engage a major European institution like
NATO will be a stunning case of strategic self-denial.