Bay of Bengal Community to accomplish Regional Cooperation; Rhetoric and Reality

Abstract

The Bay of Bengal (BoB) region is one of the world’s least integrated regions, as the borders of littoral states have turned bulwarks against the mobility of people, capital, goods and ideas, resulting in abysmal levels of trade, connectivity and cooperation. This region has for long confronted with a variety of transnational threats, including some of the most non-traditional security threats to the extent of disrupting regional stability. As much as the growing interest of the extra-regional powers, China’s forage into the Indian Ocean has pushed BoB to be a fulcrum of the wider geopolitical space of the Indo-Pacific. The placid sea of BoB tends to turn into turbulent waters rendering the regional cooperation rhetoric! As much as the shared values, histories and ways of life, BoB has the distinction of accounting for about one-fourth of world population and handling one-fourth of global trade annually. Given the untapped natural resources including the fishing stocks, reserves of gas and other sea bed minerals, BoB littorals are destined to evolve as a distinct community through trans-regional cooperation-initiatives transcending the national frontiers and unwarranted competition. The region’s discernible commonality and perceptible complementarity in many aspects are conducive to sharing technical know-how and pursuing dependable trading relations. Significant disparities in mineral wealth and industrial production are at the base of interdependence testifying to symbiotic modality, as underscored by the BIMSTEC. Justifiably, mutual interests and common concerns are ordained to promote the linkages rather sustainable partnerships among the BoB littorals as to turn the regional cooperation into a reality.