Although there has never been any lack of efforts on its part, Bangladesh could not benefit from the regional bodies it is associated with because of issues related to other countries, serving and former senior diplomats have told The Independent. Regionally and sub-regionally, Bangladesh is associated with four bodies and initiatives namely the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor, and Bangladesh-Bhutan-India Nepal (BBIN) initiative. None of the bodies is yet to get fully effective and capable of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the peoples of the member states mainly due to lack of political will, seriousness, financial, technical and diplomatic capabilities and bilateral problems among the member states, said the diplomats. The candidly pointed out that in all the four initiatives, Bangladesh is always pro-active and tries to bring out the best of the regional cooperation. But, they added Bangladesh is unable to reap the benefits because of others. The SAARC involving Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka was formed in Dhaka in 1985 with the objective to bring qualitative changes to the lives of the people of this vast region in terms of population.
 Despite significant efforts from Bangladesh, the regional organisation is yet to establish itself as an effective functional body mainly due to acrimonies between two largest members India and Pakistan. The situation has now come to a point where no one knows when the next summit will take place. The BIMSTEC comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand was established in 1997 aiming to make economic development, accelerate social progress and work as a bridge between South Asia and South East Asia.
But, there has been hardly any visible progress made by the organisation headquartered in Dhaka in long two decades. To host the organisation signals Dhaka’s keenness about it. For instance, the BIMSTEC member states signed a framework agreement in 2006 and since then they have been trying to sign a free trade agreement without any success. A total of 20 meetings were held in this regard but the agreement could not be concluded.
The BCIM initiative was taken in 1998 at the track II level where the think-tanks discussed about the economic corridor for cooperation on infrastructure development, enhancing economic integration and people-to-people contact by the member countries. Dhaka has been very pro-active about the initiative from the very beginning. The progress of this initiative is also not as expected due to ‘go slow’ policy taken by India in this regard. The first meeting of the BCIM joint study group was held in 2013 in the Chinese city of Kunming followed by the second one in 2014 in Cox’s Bazar. Although, the third one was scheduled to be held at the end of 2015 in Kolkata, it was held just last month, apparently without any major breakthrough.
The BBIN motor vehicle agreement was signed in June 2015 after the SAARC member states failed to conclude the SAARC motor vehicle agreement in the Kathmandu summit in 2014. Its progress was seemingly good with the ratification of the deal by Bangladesh, India and Nepal and people of this sub-region were waiting for the operationalisation of the initiative, which would allow free movements of people and goods among the member countries for the economic benefits. But, much to the frustration of the people and as well as the governments, Bhutan made it known last month that it cannot be part of the initiative because its upper chamber of parliament refused to ratify it. At the same time, Thimphu asked other countries to go ahead. And, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Delhi seem to be ready to go without the Himalayan kingdom and will wait for Thimphu to join when it is ready.