The First BIMSTEC Summit was held on July 31, 2004 in Bangkok. The grouping then got its name BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. Nepal and Bhutan also joined the group. The Second Summit of BIMSTEC was held in 2008 in New Delhi, India. The Third summit was held in Naypyidaw, Myanmar in 2014 and the fourth summit was held in 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The BIMSTEC has concentrated on the areas like connectivity, environment protection and blue economy.
The Fifth Summit was held in Colombo on 30 March, 2022. The Fifth Summit was significant in the sense that the member states adopted the BIMSTEC Charter which lists its objectives and principles. This summit also decided to reduce the interval between summits from four year.
BIMSTEC was decided to be located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In fact, the Sixth Summit was to be held in 2024, but due to domestic problems in Thailand it was held in April 2025.
The Priority Areas : The main purpose of the BIMSTEC is to enhance socio-economic development, economic sustainability, and cooperation and collaboration in the region through joint efforts. In order to realize its objectives, the BIMSTEC has identified 14 priority areas for collaboration and cooperation among member states: trade and investment, energy, tourism, transport and communication, public health, counter-terrorism and trans-national crime, environment and disaster management, technology, fisheries, agriculture, poverty alleviation, cultural cooperation, people- to-people contacts and climate change. However, in order to make the organization effective, the priority areas have been reduced to 7 during the 5th Summit at Colombo in 2022 and each member state has been given the leadership role in one area in the following manner :
- Trade, Investment and Development - Bangladesh
- Environment and Climate Change - Bhutan
- Security and Energy - India
- Agriculture and Food Security - Myanmar
- People-to-People Contact - Nepal
- Science, Technology and Innovation - Sri Lanka
- Connectivity - Thailand