With SAARC largely dormant, assess BIMSTEC's potential as India's main platform for regional counter-terrorism cooperation. What are its limitations?

SAARC has been stalled for over a decade by India–Pakistan friction. India has therefore turned to BIMSTEC, whose seven members cover 1.7 billion people [2]. The first BIMSTEC Home Ministers' Meeting (New Delhi, 13 October 2026) adopted the Delhi Declaration [1]. It shows strong potential, but the legal tools behind it are still incomplete.

Potential as India's counter-terror platform

• Layered architecture: The NSA mechanism (Goa, 2016) handles operations, and the new Home Ministers' track gives political direction. Ministers who control police and borders now have direct ownership [1][2].
• Legal base: The Convention on Terrorism, Transnational Organised Crime and Drug Trafficking has been in force since 2021. The Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) Convention was signed in 2022 [2].
• Agreement without a Pakistan veto: The Declaration condemns terrorism "including cross-border terrorism". It backs UNSC 1267 sanctions and standards against terror financing and money laundering [1].
• Indian leadership: India is the Lead Country of the Security pillar (counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management, energy security). It also drives work on cyber and maritime security [2].
• New-age threats: The Declaration targets technology-enabled trafficking into scam centres. It calls for a victim-centred response across countries of origin, transit and destination [1].
• Strategic fit: BIMSTEC is where Neighbourhood First, Act East and MAHASAGAR meet [2].

Limitations

• Incomplete legal toolkit: The MLA Convention is only signed. Conventions on extradition and on transfer of sentenced persons are still under discussion, and the human-trafficking MoU is only a draft [2]. Without these, India must rely on bilateral treaties. A multilateral convention can serve as the basis for extradition only if both states are parties to it [3].
• Consensus rule: Every member must agree, so one objection can stall progress [2].
• Sovereignty caveats: Cooperation must follow domestic laws and non-interference, and it is "complementary to, not a substitute for" bilateral channels [1]. This limits pressure on members such as Myanmar.
• Slow delivery: The Secretariat came only in 2014, seventeen years after BIMSTEC was founded. Home Ministers' meetings were decided in 2018 but first held in 2026 [1][2].

BIMSTEC has the geography, shared threat perception and emerging institutions to become India's main counter-terror platform, but it still lacks binding tools. Ratifying the MLA Convention, finalising the extradition and trafficking texts [2], and building standing protocols for intelligence-sharing and victim rescue would turn the Delhi Declaration into real cooperation. That would advance SDG 16 and make the Bay of Bengal a true "common security space" [1].