With SAARC dormant, BIMSTEC has become India's preferred platform for regional security cooperation. Critically examine in light of the first BIMSTEC Home Ministers' Meeting.

India is hosting the first BIMSTEC Home Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi on 13 October 2026. Its agenda covers terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, trafficking, illicit financial flows and cyber threats [1]. SAARC is stalled by India–Pakistan tension, so BIMSTEC is now India's main forum for regional security. Its results, however, still fall short of its ambition.

Why BIMSTEC is India's preferred platform

• India leads the Security pillar, which covers counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management and energy security [2].
• Legal base exists: the Counter-Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Drug Trafficking Convention has been in force since 2021. The Mutual Legal Assistance Convention was signed in 2022, and the Charter has been in force since May 2024 [2]. SAARC never built this.
• Layered architecture: NSA-level talks began at the 2016 Goa Retreat and have held four rounds. There is also a Track 1.5 Security Dialogue, and now a Home Ministers' mechanism [2].
• Policy convergence: MEA calls BIMSTEC the meeting point of Neighbourhood First, Act East and MAHASAGAR [2].

Limitations

• Legal gaps: the conventions on Extradition and Transfer of Sentenced Persons are still under discussion. The human-trafficking MoU is only "draft agreed" [2]. Ministers can pledge cooperation, but courts need treaties to act.
• Consensus rule: any one reluctant member can water down a decision [2].
• Myanmar factor: a record 236 tonnes of methamphetamine was seized in East and South-East Asia in 2024. Most of it is made in Myanmar's war-torn Shan State [3], which is beyond the reach of any Home Ministry.
• Slow pace: BIMSTEC took from 1997 to 2024 to bring its Charter into force [2].
• Coordination at home: in 2025 the Standing Committee on External Affairs called India's use of forums such as BIMSTEC "fragmented" [4]. MEA is the nodal ministry for BIMSTEC, yet MHA is hosting this meeting [1][2].
• Asymmetry: India leads the pillar and hosts several centres. Smaller members may see it as setting the agenda alone.

BIMSTEC is therefore slow but not stuck: it has legal tools that SAARC never built, but those tools are still incomplete. The meeting should be judged by results. These include a deadline for the Extradition Convention, signing the trafficking MoU, and the inter-ministerial coordination the Committee recommended [4]. If it delivers these, BIMSTEC can become a real platform for collective security, in line with SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions).