BIMSTEC home ministers adopt Delhi Declaration, approve five security initiatives at first meeting

India hosted the first meeting of BIMSTEC home ministers in New Delhi on Tuesday, 13 October, where the seven member countries adopted a Delhi Declaration and approved five initiatives aimed at strengthening security cooperation across the Bay of Bengal region.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the meeting. BIMSTEC brings together Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, a grouping of about 1.7 billion people.

What the declaration covers

The Delhi Declaration commits members to work together against cross-border terrorism, terror financing, radicalisation, drug and human trafficking, cybercrime and organised crime. It lists information sharing, mutual legal assistance, extradition and capacity building as priorities, and calls for protecting trafficking victims who have been forced into online scam operations.

Five initiatives

Ministers approved a BIMSTEC convention against trafficking in persons, a plan of action on drug control, and a memorandum of understanding on capacity building to fight money laundering and terror financing. They also backed a plan of action on illicit financial flows and another on disaster preparedness and coordination in the Bay of Bengal, covering early warning, joint exercises and tsunami risk reduction. A proposed BIMSTEC centre for disaster management in Jamnagar, Gujarat, was also discussed.

Shah restated India's "zero tolerance" policy on terrorism and described drug trafficking as "death trafficking". He said criminal networks operate across borders and exploit local weaknesses, and argued that no single country could tackle such threats alone. India offered to share expertise in police training, counter-terrorism operations and forensic investigation, according to reports citing the Home Ministry.

On the sidelines, Shah met Nepal's Home Minister Sudhan Gurung to discuss border management, transnational crime and disaster preparedness.

Why it matters

Home ministers' meetings were agreed at the fourth BIMSTEC summit in 2018 but had not been held until now. For India, the forum offers a platform to deepen security ties with eastern neighbours at a time when online scam networks, narcotics smuggling and cross-border crime affect several countries in the region. The agreements still need to be implemented, and no date has been set for the next meeting.