ABSTRACT
The sub-regional organisation Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), established in 1997, connects two sub-regions, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Counterterrorism and transnational crime is one of the 14 priority sectors for cooperation in BIMSTEC, as it is one of the major challenges the region is grappling with. The last BIMSTEC summit held in 2018 unanimously declared terrorism as a lethal threat to international peace and security and pledged to jointly combat terrorism in all its form. The objective of this chapter is to understand how terror activities are induced in the region, and the multifaceted, multidimensional and multisectoral threats stemming from it. The chapter analyses various initiatives taken by each member country to combat terrorism and their contribution to collectively counter terrorism in the region. In addition, it also assesses opportunities and challenges that affect the development of a comprehensive counterterrorism approach. Lastly, it delves into some suggestions of how the Bay of Bengal region could be successful in improving its counterterror strategies becoming a more peaceful and effective platform for regional cooperation.
