Why Join?

Three of the four countries India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also part of Saarc. Progress on economic co-operation in general, and tariff concessions under Sapta in particular, is being made in steady fashion. Another quadrangular sub-regional co-operation agreement also exists, between Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India, on the lines of the growth triangles talked about most commonly in south-east Asia.

Two of the four countries are also a part of the Indian Ocean Rim. Other than India and Sri Lanka, this unwieldy group includes Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Qatar, South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and the UAE. Bangladesh is clamouring for entry and a proposal to open membership to countries which share a common border with the Indian Ocean rim countries could open it to Thailand as well. This grouping seeks to extend co-operation in various fields like trade, investment and technology transfer, among a dozen others. In addition to all these, India is also a full dialogue partner of the Association of South East Asian nations (Asean) so all areas of concern with Thailand can be discussed under this roof. Given this plethora of regional, sub-regional and cross-regional arrangements, the logic behind India becoming part of Bistec is far from clear.

 

The brief for the new group is in fact quite vague, and does not suggest any distinctive purpose. The main areas of co-operation that have been listed include virtually every possible field trade, investment, transportation, infrastructure, science and technology, fisheries, agriculture, human resource development, natural resources and tourism. But the only initiative taken by the grouping is to set up a sub-regional airline, with private equity participation from all the four members. The rationale for this is that places of Buddhist pilgrimage, relevant particularly for Chinese and Japanese tourists, constitute an ignored sector and that the new airline will tap this specific opportunity. A concept paper on the new airline is to be put together by Thailand. The private sector in these four countries is to be persuaded to fund an airline which will operate with this narrow definition of its business. The new airline is also proposed at a time when India is still grappling with the sudden promise of an open skies policy.

At a time when the World Trade Organisation has set up a committee to go into the 112 regional groupings across the world, and see whether these clash with countries multilateral obligations, it makes more sense for India to strengthen its position multilaterally. Regional airlines can certainly take a back seat for the moment.