Geo-strategic Significance of Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea: Leveraging Maritime, Energy and Transport Connectivity for Regional Cooperation

Abstract

Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea (BoBAS) constitutes a single economically integrated region. Though for the strategic purpose, India looks at Bay of Bengal (BoB) separated from the Andaman Sea (AS). Since 2000, India has been making an effort to integrate its north-eastern region to the vibrant economies in Southeast Asia. In this context, BoBAS becomes significant to emerge as an economically integrated region that has the potential for growth. Most of the countries, except for Myanmar, have witnessed 6–8 per cent growth for the past 10 years. They face similar maritime security threats, issues of terrorism and drug trafficking. Over the past few years, the countries of the region have invested on establishing connectivity network and are ready to cooperate on blue economy as a part of sustainable development. Several bilateral and multilateral cooperations that exist suggests that the region will emerge as an integrated economic and security zone in the future.