Regional & Global Groupings: SAARC, BIMSTEC, IOR and ASEAN

India takes part in three. It joined the ARF in 1996, has been in the East Asia Summit since the first meeting in 2005, and has been one of the eight 'Plus' countries in the ADMM-Plus since its inaugural meeting in Ha Noi in 2010. India is not a member economy of APEC, which has 21 member economies. Hence only three.

BIMSTEC was set up on 6 June 1997 when Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand signed the declaration establishing BIST-EC in Bangkok. This founding text is known as the Bangkok Declaration. Dhaka hosts the Secretariat (from 2014), which is why students wrongly link the founding to Dhaka.

BIMSTEC has seven members: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. SAARC has eight: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Of the four listed, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are in both. Myanmar is in BIMSTEC but not SAARC, and the Maldives is in SAARC but not BIMSTEC.

The grouping was founded on 6 June 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar joined on 22 December 1997, and the name became BIMST-EC. After Bhutan and Nepal were admitted in 2004, the grouping took its present name at the First Summit in Bangkok (31 July 2004). All three statements are correct.

The Joint Media Statement of the 22nd AEM–India Consultation (26 September 2025) gives the position as of that date. Statement 1 is correct: ministers welcomed the completed study by ERIA in collaboration with India's Centre for WTO Studies, which supported the AITIGA review, including on how the agreement could contribute to global value chains. Statement 2 is correct: the substantial conclusion of the review was one of the Priority Economic Deliverables of Malaysia's 2025 Chairmanship. Statement 3 is wrong: ministers only noted the progress of the review and called for negotiations to be intensified, so it was still under way. A month later, the 22nd ASEAN–India Summit (26 October 2025) again welcomed the 'progress achieved so far in the ongoing negotiations'. Statement 4 is correct: ministers noted India's proposal to begin discussing a review of the services agreement on a mutually agreed timeline. Hence three statements.

The ASEAN Secretariat's 'Overview of ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation' (as of 12 June 2024) supports statements 1 and 2. APT began in December 1997 with an informal summit of ASEAN leaders with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea in Malaysia, and was institutionalised in 1999 through the Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation at the 3rd APT Summit in Manila. APTERR was established under an agreement signed by the APT agriculture and forestry ministers in October 2011 in Jakarta, to strengthen food security without distorting normal trade. Statement 3 is wrong: the first East Asia Vision Group was launched at the APT Summit of December 1998, against the backdrop of the 1997 Asian financial crisis; its report went to the 2001 Summit. Statement 4 is wrong: NEAT is the APT's Track 2 network, which submits recommendations to the annual APT Summit. Hence only two.

The landlocked members, Nepal and Bhutan, were both admitted in 2004, so statement 1 is correct. Five members (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka) are in SAARC, and the other two (Myanmar, Thailand) are in ASEAN. So every member belongs to one of the two, and statement 2 is also correct. That is why BIMSTEC is called a bridge between South and South-East Asia.

According to the BIMSTEC Secretariat, cooperation began in 1997 with six sectors: trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries. Agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism, environment, culture, people-to-people contact and climate change were added later, taking the total to fourteen before the sectors were regrouped. Only statement 1 is correct.