Overview
- India hosted and NSA Ajit Doval chaired the 5th BIMSTEC National Security Chiefs meeting in New Delhi on July 16, where delegations from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand attended.
- Meeting participants adopted guidelines for the maritime component of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to speed joint relief operations and endorsed guiding principles for maritime law enforcement to improve safety and predictability at sea.
- Doval held bilateral talks with senior officials from Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on July 15 to push for practical cooperation on maritime coordination, intelligence sharing and counter‑terrorism ahead of the conclave.
- Delegations also agreed on deeper cooperation across counter‑terrorism, cyber security, disaster management and energy and connectivity issues and pledged to build institutional capacity before BIMSTEC’s 30th anniversary in 2027.
- The meeting advances BIMSTEC’s post‑charter agenda from 2024 by turning broad commitments into procedural norms while leaving concrete implementation and operational mechanisms for follow‑up diplomacy and bilateral agreements.