With reference to the BIMSTEC, which of the following statements is/are true ? 1. P. M. Narendra Modi addressed the 5th BIMSTEC Summit on 30th March, 2022. 2. 5th Summit of BIMSTEC had been chaired by India. Select the correct answer from the code given below :
- (a)Both 1 and 2
- (b)Only 1
- (c)Neither 1 nor 2
- (d)Only 2
Correct — B, Only 1. Read this paper's code before anything else: in the UPPSC 2022 Paper-I two-statement items the four options are (a) Both 1 and 2, (b) Only 1, (c) Neither 1 nor 2 and (d) Only 2, so 'Only 1' sits at (b) here and not at the (a) many candidates expect. Statement 1 is true. The Fifth BIMSTEC Summit was held on 30 March 2022, in virtual format, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed it as one of the seven member leaders — the summit fell about ten weeks before this exam, which is why it was set. Statement 2 is false. The Fifth Summit was hosted and chaired by Sri Lanka, from Colombo; Sri Lanka handed the chairmanship to Thailand at the close of the summit. India has chaired and hosted a BIMSTEC summit only once, the Second Summit in New Delhi on 13 November 2008. With statement 1 true and statement 2 false, the answer is 'Only 1', which this paper prints at (b). The summit's substantive outcome is worth carrying separately: it adopted the BIMSTEC Charter, giving the grouping a formal legal foundation for the first time, and reorganised its sprawling fourteen areas of cooperation into seven sectors.
- (a)Both 1 and 2 — This accepts statement 2, which is wrong. The chair of the Fifth Summit was Sri Lanka, which hosted it from Colombo; India attended as a member. The chairmanship of BIMSTEC rotates alphabetically among the members, and after Colombo it passed to Thailand.
- (c)Neither 1 nor 2 — This rejects statement 1, which is true. Prime Minister Modi did address the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit on 30 March 2022; the fact that the meeting was virtual rather than in person does not change that he spoke at it.
- (d)Only 2 — The exact inversion of the truth — it drops the statement that is correct and keeps the one that is not. Statement 1 is the verifiable event and statement 2 misattributes the chair to India instead of Sri Lanka.
BIMSTEC — the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation — is a regional grouping of seven countries around and behind the Bay of Bengal: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It began in Bangkok in June 1997 as BIST-EC with four members, added Myanmar the same year, and took its present name and membership after Bhutan and Nepal joined in 2004. Its permanent Secretariat is in Dhaka, established in 2014. Because it bridges South and Southeast Asia and excludes Pakistan, India has increasingly used BIMSTEC as the working regional platform in place of a stalled SAARC, and it sits naturally alongside the Act East policy and the Neighbourhood First policy.
Current-affairs items about summits reward a single organised habit: remember the number, the year, the host and the outcome together, because the examiner can ask for any of the four. Summits are also infrequent — BIMSTEC has held only six in more than twenty-five years — so the whole list is short enough to memorise. The trap in statement 2 is a familiar one: candidates who correctly recall that an Indian leader spoke at a summit often slide into assuming India convened it. Separate the two. A leader addresses every summit his country attends; the chair is the host, and it rotates. Anchoring to mid-2022, as of this exam Sri Lanka had just handed the chair to Thailand. Bringing the picture up to date for a student reading this now: the Charter signed at Colombo entered into force on 20 May 2024, and Thailand hosted the Sixth Summit in Bangkok on 2-4 April 2025.
- The Fifth BIMSTEC Summit was held virtually on 30 March 2022, hosted and chaired by Sri Lanka from Colombo; Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed it.
- Its principal outcome was the adoption of the BIMSTEC Charter and the reorganisation of the grouping's fourteen areas of cooperation into seven sectors.
- BIMSTEC has seven members — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — and its permanent Secretariat has been at Dhaka since 2014.
- The summits: 1st Bangkok 2004, 2nd New Delhi 13 November 2008 (the only one India has hosted), 3rd Nay Pyi Taw 2014, 4th Kathmandu 2018, 5th Colombo 2022, 6th Bangkok April 2025.
- The grouping was founded in Bangkok in June 1997 as BIST-EC with Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand; Myanmar joined later that year and Bhutan and Nepal in 2004.
- Assuming that because an Indian Prime Minister addressed a summit, India chaired or hosted it — the chair rotates, and in 2022 it was Sri Lanka's
- Confusing BIMSTEC's Dhaka Secretariat with SAARC's, which is at Kathmandu
- Reading the code from habit — in this paper 'Only 1' is at (b), 'Both 1 and 2' at (a), 'Neither' at (c) and 'Only 2' at (d)
UPPSC asks recent summits as date-plus-host-plus-participant recall in a two-statement code, pinned to the months just before the exam. UPSC asks the institution instead — founding year, founding members, membership count, which country leads which sector — as it did in 2025.
Consider the following statements in respect of BIMSTEC: I. It is a regional organization consisting of seven member States till January 2025. II. It came into existence with the signing of the Dhaka Declaration, 1999. III. Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Nepal are founding member States of BIMSTEC. IV. In BIMSTEC, the subsector of 'tourism' is being led by India. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) I and II
- (b) II and III
- (c) I and IV
- (d) I only
Answer(d) I only
The same organisation asked institutionally rather than by summit. It confirms the seven-member count used here and tests the founding facts UPPSC leaves in the background — BIMSTEC dates from Bangkok in June 1997, not a Dhaka Declaration of 1999, and Nepal was not a founding member.
Which of the following countries is/are NOT a member of the 'Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation (BIMSTEC)' ? 1. Thailand 2. Nepal 3. Bhutan 4. Indonesia Select the correct answer from the code given below : Code :
- (a) 2 and 3
- (b) 1 and 4
- (c) Only 4
- (d) Only 1
Answer(c) Only 4
UPPSC returning to BIMSTEC three years later, this time on membership. Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan are all members and Indonesia is not — the seven-country list that underlies both questions, and the reason the Colombo chair in 2022 could rotate to Thailand and not to a non-member.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The permanent Secretariat of BIMSTEC is located at
- (a)Kathmandu
- (b)Dhaka
- (c)Colombo
- (d)Bangkok
Answer(b) Dhaka — the BIMSTEC Secretariat was established there in 2014; Kathmandu hosts the SAARC Secretariat, and Bangkok is where the grouping was founded in 1997.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following was the principal outcome of the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit held in March 2022?
- (a)The admission of Bhutan and Nepal as new members
- (b)The adoption of the BIMSTEC Charter and the reorganisation of its areas of cooperation into seven sectors
- (c)The establishment of the BIMSTEC Secretariat at Dhaka
- (d)The signing of a comprehensive free trade agreement covering all member States
Answer(b) The adoption of the BIMSTEC Charter and the reorganisation of its areas of cooperation into seven sectors — Bhutan and Nepal joined in 2004 and the Dhaka Secretariat dates from 2014, so those options belong to earlier stages.