For almost three decades, BIMSTEC was a grouping about trade, energy and connectivity. In October 2026 it began to act like a security community as well. The inaugural BIMSTEC Maritime Security Exercise is being held from 30 October to 3 November 2026, with all seven members taking part: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The Ministry of Defence called it "a significant milestone in advancing maritime cooperation" under the slogan "Shared Seas, Shared Security and Shared Prosperity". The exercise builds on the 6th BIMSTEC Summit, whose theme was "BIMSTEC: Prosperous, Resilient and Open", and reflects the grouping's resolve to move from "Vision to Action".
It comes just 17 days after the first BIMSTEC Home Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi adopted the Delhi Declaration, which described the Bay of Bengal as a common security space. The exercise is the first practical test of that idea at sea.
What the exercise is meant to achieve
The Ministry of Defence listed four aims:
- Interoperability: ships, aircraft and control centres of different countries learning to work together, using common procedures and communications.
- Maritime domain awareness (MDA): knowing what is moving on, under and over the sea. This covers ships, boats and aircraft, and anything suspicious among them.
- Coordination mechanisms: agreed ways of sharing information and responding together to an incident.
- Best practices: exchanging experience in surveillance, search and rescue, and law enforcement at sea.
The release also highlighted the role of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), India's first integrated tri-service command, formed in 2001. The ANC sits astride the sea lanes leading to the Malacca Strait, and has capabilities in maritime surveillance, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), and search and rescue. Our explainer on the Andaman & Nicobar Command covers its structure and history.
Two of the participants, Nepal and Bhutan, are landlocked. Their presence shows that the exercise is as much about information-sharing, coordination and disaster response as about warships. These are areas where every member, coastal or not, has a stake.
How BIMSTEC got here
BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) was founded in 1997 by Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Myanmar joined the same year, and Nepal and Bhutan in 2004. Its Charter, signed at Colombo in 2022, came into force on 20 May 2024. Our article on the first BIMSTEC Home Ministers' Meeting covers the grouping's institutions in detail.
The maritime security track has been built step by step: - The 6th Summit at Bangkok on 4 April 2025 adopted the Bangkok Vision 2030 and signed an Agreement on Maritime Transport Cooperation. India announced a set of initiatives there, including a BIMSTEC Centre of Excellence for Disaster Management and a Sustainable Maritime Transport Centre in India. - A BIMSTEC Expert Group on Maritime Security Cooperation has been meeting regularly. Its fourth meeting, hosted in New Delhi on 24–25 November 2025 by the National Security Council Secretariat, was chaired by India's National Maritime Security Coordinator, Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (Retd). It worked on guidelines across five focus areas, including HADR, and discussed "the feasibility of conducting maritime exercises in the near future". - BIMSTEC has also run joint disaster management exercises. The third, PANEX-21, was held in Pune in December 2021.
The 2026 exercise is the result of that groundwork.
Why the Bay of Bengal matters
The Bay of Bengal is the world's largest bay, covering over two million square kilometres. All five coastal BIMSTEC members border it or its arm, the Andaman Sea.
Lifelines for the region - It carries a large share of the trade of South and South-East Asia, and much of East Asia's oil and goods from the west passes along its southern edge towards the Strait of Malacca. - Its major ports include Kolkata–Haldia, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Chittagong, Yangon and Trincomalee (Sri Lanka's port on the Bay; Colombo faces the Laccadive Sea). India-built Sittwe port in Myanmar is part of the Kaladan multi-modal project to the North-East. - Large rivers drain into the Bay and its arm, the Andaman Sea, including the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna, the Irrawaddy, the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri. They feed rich fisheries and dense coastal populations.
Chokepoints near India's islands
| Channel | Location |
|---|---|
| Six Degree Channel | Between Great Nicobar (Indira Point) and Sumatra (Indonesia); the main route to the Malacca Strait |
| Ten Degree Channel | Separates the Andaman group from the Nicobar group |
| Duncan Passage | Between South Andaman and Little Andaman |
| Coco Channel | Between North Andaman and Myanmar's Coco Islands |
| Preparis Channel | North of the Coco Islands, towards the Myanmar coast |
These are the routes the ANC watches, and they are why the islands matter so much to India's maritime strategy.
Settled sea boundaries. The Bay's maritime boundaries were once disputed. Bangladesh and Myanmar settled theirs through the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in 2012, and Bangladesh and India through an arbitral tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2014. India accepted the 2014 award, which helped clear the way for cooperation.
The threats an exercise like this targets
The Bay's security problems are mostly non-traditional:
- Drug trafficking. The sea routes from the Myanmar coast are used to smuggle methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs. Indian agencies regularly report large seizures linked to Myanmar.
- Human trafficking and irregular migration, including dangerous boat crossings.
- Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and frequent arrests of fishermen who stray across boundaries.
- Natural disasters. The Bay is among the world's most cyclone-prone seas, with peak seasons in April–May and October–December. Cyclone Arnab crossed the Andhra Pradesh–Yanam coast on 28 October 2026, just as the exercise began. Coordinated search and rescue and HADR save lives in such events.
- Maritime terrorism and arms smuggling, as well as the growing presence of extra-regional navies and research vessels.
None of these threats respects maritime boundaries, which is why joint awareness and response make sense.
India's maritime security set-up
The exercise fits into a wider Indian framework:
- SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region, 2015) and its expanded form MAHASAGAR, announced in Mauritius in March 2025, set India's vision of being a security partner for its neighbours. Our article on Vision MAHASAGAR explains it.
- The Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR), set up by the Navy in Gurugram in December 2018, shares data on white shipping (commercial vessels) with partner countries.
- The post of National Maritime Security Coordinator in the National Security Council Secretariat, created in 2022, coordinates the many agencies that deal with the sea: the Navy, the Coast Guard, ports, fisheries, customs and state police.
- Bilateral exercises and patrols with Bay neighbours already run regularly. Examples include SLINEX with Sri Lanka, Bongosagar with Bangladesh, coordinated patrols (CORPATs) with Thailand, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and the trilateral SITMEX with Singapore and Thailand. The multilateral MILAN exercise began at Port Blair in 1995.
What is new in 2026 is that all seven BIMSTEC members are exercising together under the grouping's own banner.
🔑 Revision block
The exercise. Inaugural BIMSTEC Maritime Security Exercise, 30 October – 3 November 2026; all 7 members; motto "Shared Seas, Shared Security and Shared Prosperity"; aims: interoperability, maritime domain awareness, coordination, best practices; ANC highlighted.
Background. 6th Summit, Bangkok, 4 April 2025 (theme "Prosperous, Resilient and Open"; Bangkok Vision 2030; Maritime Transport Cooperation Agreement). Expert Group on Maritime Security Cooperation: 4th meeting, New Delhi, 24–25 November 2025 (NSCS; NMSC Vice Adm Biswajit Dasgupta, Retd). Delhi Declaration (13 October 2026): Bay of Bengal a common security space.
BIMSTEC basics. Founded 1997 (BIST-EC); Myanmar 1997; Nepal and Bhutan 2004; Charter in force 20 May 2024. Disaster exercise PANEX-21 (Pune, December 2021).
Geography. World's largest bay; Six Degree Channel (Great Nicobar–Sumatra), Ten Degree Channel (Andaman–Nicobar), Duncan Passage, Coco and Preparis Channels. Boundaries: Bangladesh–Myanmar ITLOS 2012; Bangladesh–India PCA 2014.
India's framework. ANC (2001, first tri-service command); SAGAR (2015) → MAHASAGAR (March 2025); IFC-IOR (Gurugram, December 2018); NMSC (2022); exercises SLINEX, Bongosagar, CORPATs, SITMEX, MILAN (1995).
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Which of the following countries is NOT a member of BIMSTEC? (a) Thailand (b) Bhutan (c) Maldives (d) Myanmar
→ (c) The seven members are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The Maldives is not one of them.
Q2. The Six Degree Channel separates: (a) Great Nicobar from Sumatra (b) The Andaman Islands from the Nicobar Islands (c) Minicoy from the Maldives (d) North Andaman from the Coco Islands
→ (a) (b) is the Ten Degree Channel, (c) the Eight Degree Channel and (d) the Coco Channel.
Q3. India's first integrated tri-service command, highlighted in the BIMSTEC exercise, is the: (a) Strategic Forces Command (b) Southern Naval Command (c) Eastern Naval Command (d) Andaman and Nicobar Command
→ (d) The ANC was formed in 2001. The Strategic Forces Command handles nuclear forces and is not a theatre command.
Q4. The maritime boundary between India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal was settled in 2014 by: (a) The International Court of Justice (b) An arbitral tribunal under the Permanent Court of Arbitration (c) The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (d) A bilateral treaty signed at Dhaka
→ (b) ITLOS decided the Bangladesh–Myanmar case in 2012; the India–Bangladesh case went to an arbitral tribunal administered by the PCA in 2014.
Q5. The Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) is located in: (a) Kochi (b) Gurugram (c) Port Blair (d) Visakhapatnam
→ (b) The Navy set it up in Gurugram in December 2018 to share maritime information with partner countries.
Q6. Consider the following statements: 1. All seven BIMSTEC members are taking part in the inaugural maritime security exercise. 2. BIMSTEC's Charter came into force in 2024. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2
→ (c) The exercise brings together all seven members, and the Charter came into force on 20 May 2024.
Q7. The theme of the 6th BIMSTEC Summit (Bangkok, 2025) was: (a) "Prosperous, Resilient and Open" (b) "Towards a Resilient, Prosperous and Sustainable Bay of Bengal" (c) "Shared Seas, Shared Security and Shared Prosperity" (d) "Building a Peaceful, Prosperous and Sustainable Bay of Bengal Region"
→ (a) "Shared Seas, Shared Security and Shared Prosperity" is the motto of the 2026 maritime exercise, not of the summit.
Q8. India's vision for the Indian Ocean announced in Mauritius in March 2025, expanding SAGAR, is called: (a) Neighbourhood First (b) Act East (c) Look West (d) MAHASAGAR
→ (d) MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) built on SAGAR (2015).
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
The NDA GAT paper asks about regional groupings and maritime geography in predictable ways.
The first is membership: which country belongs to BIMSTEC, SAARC, the IORA or the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium. Overlapping memberships (Myanmar and Thailand are in BIMSTEC but not SAARC; Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Maldives are in SAARC but not BIMSTEC) are the standard trap.
The second is channels and islands: the Six, Eight, Nine and Ten Degree Channels, Duncan Passage and Coco Channel, usually as "which channel separates which islands".
The third is defence structures and exercises: the Andaman and Nicobar Command as the tri-service command, and which exercise is held with which country. The fresh hooks this cycle are the first BIMSTEC Maritime Security Exercise (30 October – 3 November 2026), its motto, and the Delhi Declaration's "common security space".
Preparing for NDA? Practise locating the channels and ports in this article on a blank map; questions on them look easy but are easy to mix up. Our NDA geography notes cover the maritime basics, the daily NDA current affairs tracks exercises like this, and the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi combine the written paper with SSB preparation.
Source: PIB / Ministry of Defence, "Inaugural BIMSTEC Maritime Security Exercise", 31 October 2026; National Security Council Secretariat, "Fourth BIMSTEC Experts Group Meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation Concludes in New Delhi", 25 November 2025; Prime Minister's Office releases on the 6th BIMSTEC Summit, 4 April 2025. Geography, boundary settlements and India's maritime institutions cross-checked with standard references.
✍️ Written by Maj Sunil Chopra — Veteran, Indian Army; defence-studies & current-affairs faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk.