| Abstrakt: |
The Bay of Bengal was important for world trade till the close of the nineteenth century. Weakening imperialism and the newly found independence by nations brought mistrust and weakened the bond of cohesiveness and unity, making the Bay to lose its identity. This was extenuated by the creation of regional identities of 'Southeast Asia' and 'South Asia'. While Southeast Asia restored their unity under ASEAN in 1965 and South Asia under SAARC in 1985, no real effort to revitalize the entire swath of the Bay as one entity was made until the initiation of India's 'Look East' policy in 1991 and later the formation of BIMSTEC in 1997. In the new millennium, the rise of China and India and their interest and focus on this region, has brought about forced cooperation, connectivity and conflict forcing bilateral, multilateral, regional and sub-regional agreements by littoral states. This has led the Bay to acquire an importance that cannot be ignored. The paper evaluates these efforts to decipher if the Bay of Bengal is really regaining its lost importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
