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
Correct — C, Only 4. BIMSTEC has exactly seven members — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — and Indonesia is not among them. Thailand is in fact a founder: the grouping was created by the Bangkok Declaration of 6 June 1997 as BIST-EC, standing for Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Myanmar joined on 22 December 1997, making it BIMST-EC, and Nepal and Bhutan became full members in February 2004, at which point the name settled as BIMSTEC. Indonesia is a founder-member of ASEAN, a different Southeast Asian grouping, and that is exactly why it is the plausible-looking odd one out here. So only country 4 is a non-member.
- (a)2 and 3 — Nepal and Bhutan are both full BIMSTEC members. They were the last two to join, in February 2004, and their entry is precisely what turned BIMST-EC into BIMSTEC. Being landlocked does not exclude them — BIMSTEC covers the Bay of Bengal's hinterland as well as its coast.
- (b)1 and 4 — Half right. Indonesia is correctly picked out as a non-member, but Thailand is not merely a member, it is a founder — the 'T' in the original BIST-EC, and the country whose capital gave the founding Bangkok Declaration its name.
- (d)Only 1 — This makes Thailand the non-member, which inverts the position entirely. Thailand has been in since 6 June 1997, leads BIMSTEC's connectivity sector, and hosted the sixth BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok in April 2025, only months before this exam.
BIMSTEC — the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation — is a regional grouping of the Bay of Bengal littoral and its hinterland. It joins five South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka) to two Southeast Asian ones (Myanmar, Thailand), which makes it the principal bridge between SAARC and ASEAN. Its permanent secretariat, opened in 2014, is in Dhaka. Work is divided into sectors led by individual members — under the seven-sector structure adopted at the 5th Summit (Colombo, 2022) and in force at this exam, India leads Security, Thailand Connectivity, Bangladesh Trade and Investment, Myanmar Agriculture and Food Security, Nepal People-to-People Contact — which is where culture and tourism now sit — Sri Lanka Science, Technology and Innovation, and Bhutan Environment and Climate Change. Older material still lists the pre-2022 fourteen sectors, in which Bhutan led culture. India has pushed the grouping hard since 2016 as an alternative to a SAARC paralysed by India-Pakistan relations; neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan is a member.
The whole item turns on one distinction: BIMSTEC is a Bay of Bengal grouping and ASEAN is a Southeast Asian one. Indonesia — ASEAN's largest member and one of its founders — does not touch the Bay of Bengal and has never been in BIMSTEC. The safest way to hold the seven members is geographically: everything on or draining into the Bay of Bengal, plus the two landlocked Himalayan states, Nepal and Bhutan. Once you can recite those seven, every BIMSTEC membership question answers itself, and the standard traps — importing Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore from ASEAN, or Pakistan and Maldives from SAARC — stop working.
- BIMSTEC's seven members: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand
- Founded on 6 June 1997 by the Bangkok Declaration as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand); Myanmar joined on 22 December 1997 and Nepal and Bhutan in February 2004, giving the present name
- The permanent BIMSTEC Secretariat is at Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh, and was opened in 2014
- Indonesia is a founder-member of ASEAN, not of BIMSTEC — the two groupings are constantly confused in examinations
- The sixth BIMSTEC Summit was held in Bangkok, Thailand in early April 2025, about six months before this exam
Seven members in all — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand. Only Indonesia is outside, so the answer is (c) Only 4.
- Importing ASEAN members — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore — into the BIMSTEC list because both groupings sit in the same corner of Asia
- Forgetting that landlocked Nepal and Bhutan are full BIMSTEC members even though neither has a Bay of Bengal coast
- Assuming Pakistan or the Maldives must be in BIMSTEC because they are in SAARC — both are outside it
Both UPPSC and UPSC start with membership — 'which of the following is/are NOT a member' — and then move on to founding year, the secretariat's location, and which country leads which sector. UPSC's own 2025 prelims paper tested BIMSTEC in statement form in the same exam season.
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 very same grouping tested by UPSC in the same 2025 season, in statement form: seven member states, the founding year, who the founder-members were, and which country leads which sector. Between the two questions the entire BIMSTEC factsheet is covered.
Which one of the following countries is not a member of ASEAN?
- (a) Vietnam
- (b) Brunei Darussalam
- (c) Bangladesh
- (d) Myanmar
Answer(c) Bangladesh
The identical skill applied to the neighbouring grouping — spot the non-member of ASEAN. Worth pairing with this UPPSC item because Indonesia, the answer here, is exactly the ASEAN founder-member that gets mistakenly imported into BIMSTEC.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The permanent Secretariat of BIMSTEC is located in
- (a)Kathmandu
- (b)Dhaka
- (c)Bangkok
- (d)Colombo
Answer(b) Dhaka — the permanent secretariat opened there in 2014; Kathmandu hosts the SAARC Secretariat and Jakarta the ASEAN Secretariat.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which pair of countries are members of BIMSTEC but not of SAARC?
- (a)Myanmar and Thailand
- (b)Nepal and Bhutan
- (c)Maldives and Afghanistan
- (d)Indonesia and Malaysia
Answer(a) Myanmar and Thailand — BIMSTEC's two Southeast Asian members. Nepal and Bhutan belong to both groupings, the Maldives and Afghanistan are in SAARC only, and Indonesia and Malaysia are in neither.