SSC
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was established in:
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Answer: Option A — 1997
Detailed Solution
BIMSTEC was established on 6 June 1997, through the Bangkok Declaration, in Bangkok, Thailand.
About BIMSTEC:
- It was first called "BIST-EC" (Bangladesh-India-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation), with four founding members: Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
- Myanmar joined in December 1997, and it was renamed "BIMST-EC".
- Nepal and Bhutan joined in 2004, and in 2004 it was given its present name: the "Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation".
- It now has seven members: five from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka) and two from South-East Asia (Myanmar and Thailand).
- It acts as a bridge between South Asia and South-East Asia, and supports India's "Act East" and "Neighbourhood First" policies.
- Its Secretariat was set up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2014.
- Its member countries are home to about 22 per cent of the world's population.
Important developments:
At its 5th Summit, held virtually in Colombo (Sri Lanka) in 2022, the members adopted the BIMSTEC Charter, which gave it a formal legal identity. The Charter came into force in 2024.
The number of sectors of cooperation was reduced to seven, with each member leading one sector. India leads the "Security" sector (including counter-terrorism, disaster management and energy).
The 6th Summit was held in Bangkok in April 2025.
Its areas of cooperation include trade, investment, technology, energy, transport, tourism, fisheries, agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism, environment, culture and people-to-people contact.
A BIMSTEC Free Trade Area has been under negotiation for many years.
India has promoted BIMSTEC as an alternative platform for regional cooperation, as SAARC has been largely inactive since 2016.
Other regional organisations:
- SAARC: 1985, Dhaka; Secretariat in Kathmandu.
- ASEAN: 1967, Bangkok; Secretariat in Jakarta.
- Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC): 2000; India and five Mekong countries.
- Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA): 1997; Secretariat in Mauritius.
Why not the other options?
- ✗1985 is the year SAARC was founded.
- ✗1991 is the year India began its economic reforms and the "Look East" policy.
- ✗2004 is the year Nepal and Bhutan joined and the present name was adopted.
Quick tip
Remember: BIMSTEC = 6 June 1997, Bangkok Declaration (7 members; Secretariat Dhaka, 2014; Charter adopted 2022, in force 2024; India leads security); SAARC = 1985; ASEAN = 1967.
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International Economic Organisations — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of International Economic Organisations, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers international economic and financial organisations: the IMF, the World Bank group, the WTO, the Asian Development Bank, the New Development Bank, the AIIB, OPEC, the OECD and groupings such as the G20, along with their headquarters, founding and functions. Questions usually ask where an organisation is headquartered, when it was set up, and what it does. For example, the IMF and World Bank were created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the WTO replaced GATT in 1995, and the New Development Bank, set up by the BRICS countries, is headquartered in Shanghai. Practise the international economic organisations questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.