ABSTRACT
The BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) construct is based on the core concept of sub-regional cooperation among the four immediate neighbours for enhancing trade and investment contacts, and convergence of their interests. Started primarily as a Track-II process under the Kunming Initiative, momentum is developing currently to enhance BCIM into a higher-order mechanism, especially to upgrade it from Track-I to a level of ministerial mechanism. Underlying India’s and China’s policy approaches to BCIM are three vital strategic priorities, namely, infrastructural connectivity, security concerns and neighbourhood politics. Both countries’ approaches towards BCIM have an underlying softpower economic bearing, which is the key to their regional as well as subregional power politics. This chapter aims to evaluate the progress and influence of the BCIM mechanism on India-China sub-regional interaction.
