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At its sixth Summit, BIMSTEC took a decisive step toward tackling transnational crime by strengthening regional security cooperation and partnering with the UNODC
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The sixth BIMSTEC Summit, though delayed for one year due to Thailand's political conditions, finally took place from 2–4 April 2025 in Bangkok, marking a milestone in the organisation's trajectory toward becoming a more institutionalised and action-oriented regional grouping. While adopting the BIMSTEC Charter in 2022 provided a long-overdue legal foundation, the 2025 Summit built on that momentum by delivering key strategic frameworks, including the Bangkok Vision 2030 and the Summit Declaration, which laid out the organisation's long-term direction.
Among the various agreements and partnerships formalised during the Summit, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BIMSTEC and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stands out as a particularly timely and crucial step. At a time when the Bay of Bengal region is grappling with escalating challenges related to transnational organised crime, ranging from drug trafficking and human smuggling to cyber-enabled exploitation, this MoU signals BIMSTEC's growing commitment to addressing non-traditional security threats through structured cooperation with global institutions.
While adopting the BIMSTEC Charter in 2022 provided a long-overdue legal foundation, the 2025 Summit built on that momentum by delivering key strategic frameworks, including the Bangkok Vision 2030 and the Summit Declaration, which laid out the organisation's long-term direction.
As a multilateral grouping that bridges South and Southeast Asia, BIMSTEC faces a range of interlinked security challenges: drug trafficking, modern-day slavery, arms smuggling, and money laundering. Over the past decade and especially in the last five years, these threats have grown in both complexity and reach, exposing the limitations of isolated, national-level responses.
Drug trafficking in the BIMSTEC region has expanded significantly in scope, sophistication, and geographic spread, severely impacting security, public health, and economic development. Nestled between the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent—two of the world's largest drug-producing zones—the region faces endemic vulnerabilities due to porous borders, weak state capacity, and entrenched trafficking networks.
One of the most alarming trends has been the surge in synthetic drug production, especially methamphetamines and Yaba pills originating from Myanmar's conflict-ridden Shan State. COVID-19, followed by the 2021 military coup and the ensuing internal conflict, has allowed drug syndicates to operate with greater impunity. These narcotics traverse porous borders into Thailand, Bangladesh, and India's Northeast before dispersing into Nepal and, via sea route, Sri Lanka.
COVID-19, followed by the 2021 military coup and the ensuing internal conflict, has allowed drug syndicates to operate with greater impunity.
In 2023, methamphetamine seizures in East and Southeast Asia reached a record high of 190 tons, while methamphetamine seizures in the South Asian region, particularly in Bangladesh and India, surged from 7.2 tons in 2013 to 20.4 tons in 2022. According to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) 2024, Indian authorities seized 107.31 kg of cocaine, 49kg of heroin, 136kg of methamphetamine, and over 7,349kg of ganja during the 2024 fiscal year, together valued at well over INR 1,600 crore in the illicit market.
Simultaneously, Myanmar has witnessed a 33 percent increase in opium cultivation since 2023, particularly in the Shan, Kachin, and Chin States. Many ethnic armed groups in these regions rely on the drug trade to finance their operations, further complicating law enforcement efforts. Widespread corruption within enforcement agencies exacerbates the problem, enabling the persistence and expansion of these criminal enterprises.
Human trafficking has also become more sophisticated and a regionally networked concern. In the last five years, forced labour, sexual exploitation, and, more recently, cyber scam slavery, have emerged as dominant forms of trafficking. Nearly 300,000 people—many of them educated and tech-savvy youths from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh within the BOB region, among others—are reportedly trapped in scam compounds across Myanmar's Myawaddy region. These individuals are lured by fake job offers in countries like Thailand and the UAE, only to be trafficked to scam centres operating in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. These organised crime networks function within pervasive corruption, frequently collaborating with non-state armed actors. Their operations are often enabled by the complicity of senior officials, political leaders, local law enforcement, and powerful business interests, as they operate in a lawless environment.
Meanwhile, conventional human trafficking continues to affect vulnerable populations. As per the 2024 Global Report on Trafficking in Person, in South and Southeast Asia, the majority of all trafficked individuals, especially 79 percent of girls and women, were trafficked for forced labour, while about a third were trafficked for sexual exploitation.
The convergence of drug trafficking, cybercrime, and human exploitation calls for a more integrated and cooperative approach within the BIMSTEC framework with seamless intelligence sharing, harmonised law enforcement standards, and cross-border capacity building.
The Convention provides a comprehensive legal foundation for regional cooperation on issues such as terrorism, organised crime, and drug trafficking, including provisions for extradition, mutual legal assistance, and intelligence sharing to harmonise responses across the region.
BIMSTEC has long recognised the importance of countering terrorism and transnational organised crime to ensure peace and sustainable development in the Bay of Bengal region. The BIMSTEC Convention on Cooperation in Combating International Terrorism, Transnational Organised Crime and Illicit Drug Trafficking, signed in 2009, only entered into force in 2021 due to delays in ratification by member states. The Convention provides a comprehensive legal foundation for regional cooperation on issues such as terrorism, organised crime, and drug trafficking, including provisions for extradition, mutual legal assistance, and intelligence sharing to harmonise responses across the region.
Complementing this, the BIMSTEC Sub-Group on Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursor Chemicals, established in 2005, serves as a technical and operational arm of the Convention. It enables practical cooperation through periodic meetings, data exchange, and joint capacity-building efforts among national drug enforcement agencies. While the Convention lays the legal groundwork, the Sub-Group focuses on day-to-day coordination and regional responses to narcotics trafficking.
However, the Convention initially overlooked human trafficking—a gap that became increasingly significant as the scale of trafficking-related crimes grew. To address this, the 7th Meeting of the BIMSTEC Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (JWG-CTTC), held in August 2015, agreed to create a dedicated Sub-Group on Human Trafficking. Progress has since been gradual. Most recently, the 3rd Meeting of the Sub-Group was held in Dhaka on 6–7 April 2025, focusing on implementing the Plan of Action to Combat Human Trafficking in the Bay of Bengal Region. Discussions centred around developing a secure digital platform for cooperation and drafting Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the rescue and repatriation of trafficked persons—critical steps toward strengthening cross-border coordination and victim protection.
While BIMSTEC's National Security Advisers (NSAs) met annually until 2019 and resumed in 2024, a formal and ratified mechanism for operational coordination, particularly in intelligence sharing and joint enforcement, remains pending. The absence of this institutionalised mechanism continues to hinder real-time cooperation and joint action. As a result, despite progress in legal and technical frameworks, BIMSTEC's regional security cooperation, while valuable for technical cooperation, remains fragmented, under-resourced, and slow to respond to rapidly evolving threats due to uneven political will and lack of a centralised coordinating body to monitor progress or accountability.
The MoU between BIMSTEC and UNODC represents a pragmatic shift towards better managing these crimes. Through its integrated programmes in South and Southeast Asia, UNODC has developed tools for victim protection, law enforcement training, and judicial cooperation, which can directly support BIMSTEC's capacity-building efforts.
The partnership also addresses a fundamental regional gap: Inadequate intelligence infrastructure and joint operational frameworks. Criminal networks are increasingly transnational, exploiting legal loopholes, fragmented jurisdictional systems, and the digital domain to evade detection. BIMSTEC, while committed to cooperation, lacks the institutional capacity to build and manage sophisticated intelligence or enforcement mechanisms alone.
Through its integrated programmes in South and Southeast Asia, UNODC has developed tools for victim protection, law enforcement training, and judicial cooperation, which can directly support BIMSTEC's capacity-building efforts.
By partnering with UNODC, BIMSTEC can access international databases, best practices, training modules, and technical assistance to harmonise laws, strengthen institutions, and enhance enforcement efficacy.
The region's ability to counter transnational crime through robust, cooperative frameworks will be key to sustaining peace, stability and human security. As BIMSTEC approaches its 30th anniversary in 2027, delivering the Summit's outcomes to foster a more prosperous and resilient Bay of Bengal region will be crucial.
Sreeparna Banerjee is an Associate Fellow at the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.
Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury is a Senior Fellow with the Neighbourhood Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Sreeparna Banerjee is an Associate Fellow in the Strategic Studies Programme. Her work focuses on the geopolitical and strategic affairs concerning two Southeast Asian countries, namely ...
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Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury is Senior Fellow with ORF’s Neighbourhood Initiative. She is the Editor, ORF Bangla. She specialises in regional and sub-regional cooperation in ...
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