BCIM Economic Corridor an Integral Part of BRI for Regional Cooperation: Positioning India’s North-East and Act East Policy

Abstract

China proactively wants to establish the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC) as an integral part of the Belt and Road Initiative for economic cooperation. Through the BCIM-EC, China wants to revive the ancient Southern Silk Road trade route. Beijing realises that to achieve the BCIM-EC, India’s cooperation would be indispensable. India has been hesitant to fully commit to the BCIM-EC owing mainly to the surging trade deficit with China, overlapping of objectives with other similar existing regional cooperation initiatives, China’s dominance in South Asia, security concerns, territorial disputes and trade-related logistic issues. However, in recent times, India has shown more interest in developing the economic corridor considering its potential to promote development, security and stability in the Indian Northeast, which would align well with the geostrategic objectives of India’s Act East Policy (AEP). India however needs to better align its AEP with BCIM-EC in order to promote and strengthen the AEP and thereby concurrently build the BCIM-EC to link Southeast Asia and China.