BIMSTEC move for cross-border movement of multimodal vehicles

The BIMSTEC has taken a move to sign motor vehicle agreement (MVA) under the sub- regional forum of seven South and South East Asian countries for cross-border movement of multimodal transports..
Sources said the first draft of the MVA under the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has already been completed.
They said the draft, prepared by India, has been sent to member-countries for providing respective inputs to it.
"The MVA initiative under the BIMSTEC was taken long ago and it remained virtually in cold storage. But following difficulties in executing MVA under Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN), the initiative has been revived to find fresh scope of signing MVA in broader areas," said an official engaged with the move.
If the initiative succeeds, he said, the BIN region will also be covered, they said.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the BIMSTEC MVA is likely to be one of the outcomes of the group's next summit which is to celebrate 20 years of its founding this year.
All BIMSTEC leaders agreed to work on the regional connectivity during last year's BRICS summit where the seven-nation forum was also focussed.
During visits by Bangladesh and Nepal Prime Ministers and Sri Lankan President to India in last April, the issue of establishing mutli-modal regional connectivity among seven countries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand--was also discussed.
Establishing regional integration through connectivity has been taken into consideration by different forums, but most of those could not be successful.
Following failure to sign MVA under the SAARC in 2014, the BBIN signed the MVA in June 2015. Another MVA was also signed among India, Myanmar and Thailand. But none of these initiatives clicked.
The BBIN MVA is now being revived through BIN excluding Bhutan due to the Himalayan country's repeated refusal to ratify the agreement.
The MoFA sources said the BIMSTEC MVA has the potential to be executed due to coverage of common and cross-cutting interests and geographical position.
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