BIMSTEC includes Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal. Its regional diffusion is among the countries of South and Southeast Asia. They aim to improve technological and economic cooperation. Bilateral, regional and global groups and agreements involving India and affecting or affecting India`s interests India is prepared for intense economic engagement with China bilaterally, but is unwilling or unwilling to open its strategic space in the region to Chinese presence and influence. Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process is a platform to discuss regional issues about Afghanistan and its neighbors. The top priorities are Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe`s participation in the Hindu Huddle Conclave, where he discussed India`s foreign policy and the need for greater regional integration. It is not very happy to welcome China as a member of SAARC, or even to increase its observer status in the regional organization. India is resisting pressure from its SAARC neighbors on China, arguing that SAARC does not yet need to achieve internal cohesion or consolidation. Following the attacks of 11 September 2001, the Indian Secret Service provided the United States with important information on the activities of Al-Qaeda and related groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. India`s significant contribution to the war on terror, coupled with a growing economy, has helped India`s diplomatic relations with several countries. Over the past three years, India has held numerous joint military exercises with the US and European nations, which have strengthened bilateral relations between the US and India and the EU and India.

India`s bilateral trade with Europe and the United States has more than doubled in the past five years. In the 1960s and 1970s, India`s international position among industrialized and developing countries faded as a result of wars with China and Pakistan, disputes with other South Asian countries, and India`s attempt to offset U.S. and Chinese support for Pakistan through the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between India and the Soviet Union in August 1971. Although India received considerable Soviet military and economic aid that contributed to nation-building, India`s influence was undermined regionally and internationally by the perception that its friendship with the Soviet Union prevented more open condemnation of the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. In the late 1980s, India improved its relations with the United States, other developed countries and China, while pursuing close relations with the Soviet Union. Relations with its South Asian neighbors, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, have occupied much of the Foreign Ministry`s energy. For a regional subgroup to thrive in South Asia, India must make the most concessions, which it may not do, given the huge trade deficits that India`s neighbours currently have. India needs to be more conciliatory in achieving its ambitions.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an association of South Asian countries for the promotion of regional unity and economic cooperation. Member states include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The grouping has identified 14 priority areas, some of which all have the above-mentioned commercial creation and diversion effects. In order to examine such distraction effects, the WTO established a most-favoured-nation clause stipulating that the free trade area was in place; two or more countries come together and lower all tariffs on their trade, while retaining individual tariffs against ROW. Proposal by Mr Wickremesinghe to the conclave This is a conference initiated by India. . . .