BIMSTEC - Bangkok Vision 2030

BIMSTEC, the seven-nation Bay of Bengal grouping, held its 6th Summit in Bangkok on 4 April 2025 - the leaders' first face-to-face meeting since 2018 - and handed the bloc its first-ever roadmap, the Bangkok Vision 2030. Members signed BIMSTEC's maiden Maritime Transport Agreement, while India's Prime Minister rolled out a fresh youth-skilling scheme called BODHI and offers to seed four Centres of Excellence. Increasingly cast as India's preferred bridge between South and Southeast Asia, the bloc is emerging as the working alternative to a stalled SAARC.