AFTER decades of neglect, the Bay of Bengal is today reassuming strategic too economical salience. Nearly 1.4 billion people alive along its coastline too almost a 4th of the world’s full population calls this part home. The vii countries situated straightaway on too about the bay (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka too Thailand) accept a combined gross domestic product of only about US$ 2.7 trillion too an impressive average charge per unit of measurement of economical growth of about 5.5%.
One 4th of the world’s traded goods cross the Bay of Bengal every year. As the world’s largest bay, it is also rich inward untapped natural resources, with some of the world’s largest line-fishing stocks, reserves of gas too other sea bed minerals. H5N1 strategic funnel to the Strait of Malacca linking the Indian too Pacific oceans, the part is of pivotal importance for China, Nihon too most East too Southeast Asian states seeking to secure their access routes to crucial unloose energy resources inward the Gulf too Africa.
The Bay of Bengal hosts a diversity of transnational threats that tin disrupt regional stability. The 2004 Asian seismic sea wave devastated the bay’s coastline too the part is regularly affected past times tropical cyclones. Political conflict has resulted inward some of the world’s largest refugee flows, including late almost 1 one K one thousand people from Myanmar into Bangladesh. Whether it is to traffic narcotics, weapons too people, to illegally exploit natural resources or to spread extremism too terror, the Bay of Bengal also hosts some of the most challenging non-traditional safety threats.
Beyond its economical potential too strategic significance, however, the Bay of Bengal distinguishes itself globally past times abysmal levels of integration, reflecting a deep split betwixt South too Southeast Asia. Intra-regional merchandise alongside its littoral states is today less than 5%, compared to 29% alongside Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries. Paradoxically, merchandise volumes or air, sea too route transportation infrastructure were ofttimes to a greater extent than developed inward the 1950s than today. For example, today the 1,600 km long India-Myanmar edge is 1 of Asia’s to the lowest degree open, with electrical current reason based merchandise (USD 71 1 K one thousand or 3.5% of bilateral trade) beingness less than India’s full merchandise with distant Nicaragua.
These abysmal levels of connectivity are the effect of decades of economic, political too geostrategic difference every bit the colonial era came to an halt too novel states formed inward too about the Bay of Bengal. Starting with the inauguration of New Delhi every bit the British Raj’s upper-case alphabetic lineament inward 1931 (replacing Calcutta), too the administrative separation of Burma inward 1937, the Bay of Bengal entered a long menstruum of fragmentation too stagnation.
With the institution of novel political borders, outset with India’s independence inward 1947 too culminating inward the creation of People's Republic of Bangladesh inward 1971, the region’s economical openness receded dramatically. Except for Thailand, all countries adopted diverse models of state-driven development, protectionism, autarky too isolation. Free merchandise too marketplace economic scheme were discarded too borders turned into bulwarks against the mobility of people, capital, goods too ideas. The part turned inwards, prioritizing political consolidation at habitation over economical openness too interdependence. Security was to locomote achieved through isolation, non integration.
By the 1970s, the thought of an ‘Asia-Pacific’ part was, therefore, to a greater extent than ofttimes than non understood to stretch from the Korean peninsula to Indochina, including Southeast Asia but excluding the Indian subcontinent. The subsequent creation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) inward the mid-1980s, formalized the regional split betwixt ‘South’ too ‘Southeast’ Asia.
So patch the Bay of Bengal’s long history reflects intense flows of people, goods too ideas at the crossroads of the Indian subcontinent too Indochina, too also betwixt the Himalayas too the Indian Ocean, past times the 1980s few people thought of it every bit a distinct region, economical community or geostrategic space.
With the economical reforms of the 1990s inward Republic of Republic of India too across South Asia, however, the Bay of Bengal’s geo-economic centrality too legacy of integration was piece of cake reactivated. Driven past times the novel logic of interdependence too comparative advantage, states inward the part began seeing borders every bit connectors too invest inward the infrastructure of connectivity to permit greater flows of goods, services, upper-case alphabetic lineament too ideas. No longer a gulf of disintegration, the Bay of Bengal piece of cake began assuming the purpose of a hub to leverage synergies betwixt South too Southeast Asia.
As pointed out past times historian Sunil Amrith, therefore, the ‘hope for a novel regionalism lies inward recognizing that the bay’s history, every bit much every bit its ecology, transcends national frontiers.’1 Similarly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined that ‘with shared values, histories, ways of life, too destinies that are interlinked, [the Bay of Bengal] represents a mutual infinite for peace too development.’2
This novel narrative close the Bay of Bengal is driven past times a diversity of actors too interests. For India, which has almost 1 quarter of its population living inward states bordering the bay, growth too evolution are increasingly seen to hinge on the grade of connectivity with the Southeast Asian markets, every bit reflected inward its ‘Act East’ policy. As the Belt too Road Initiative increases China’s North-South access routes to the Indian Ocean, particularly via Myanmar, People's Republic of Bangladesh too Sri Lanka, New Delhi is accelerating choice East-West connectivity plans across the Bay of Bengal.
For People's Republic of Bangladesh too Sri Lanka, the ascent centrality of the Bay of Bengal helps to realize their economical interests inward the emerging markets of Southern Asia too to cut back their dependence on India. For Nepal too Bhutan, both landlocked betwixt Republic of Republic of India too China, growth prospects volition increment dramatically past times giving their Himalayan hinterland economies a stronger maritime link. Finally, the ‘Look West’ policies of Myanmar too Thailand volition exclusively succeed if the Bay of Bengal is transformed into a hub of connectivity with adequate infrastructure investments.
Beyond province specific drivers, the novel involvement inward the Bay of Bengal is also reflected at the multilateral level, whether through the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical too Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), ASEAN’s western outreach to South Asian countries, or the Asian Development Bank’s massive commitments to prepare transportation infrastructure inward too about the Bay of Bengal. Finally, situated at the middle of the Indo-Pacific region, the Bay of Bengal has also attracted an increasing involvement from extra-regional powers, including the United States, Japan, Commonwealth of Australia too Singapore.
Through a diversity of perspectives from inside too beyond the region, this number of Seminar contributes to a meliorate agreement of what factors get this novel narrative on the Bay of Bengal, every bit good every bit the opportunities too challenges it volition facial expression upwards to emerge every bit a distinct region, economical community too strategic space.
Footnotes:
1. Sunil S. Amrith, ‘The Bay of Bengal inward Peril from Climate Change’, The New York Times, thirteen Oct 2013, http://www. nytimes.com/2013/10/14/opinion/the-bay-of-bengal-in-peril-from-climate-change.html
2. Indian Ministry of External Affairs, ‘Prime Minister’s Message on 20th Anniversary of Establishment of BIMSTEC’, vi June 2017, http://www.mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/28514/Prime_Ministers_message_on_20th_anniversary_of_ establishment_of_BIMSTEC
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