The geographic constructs and the geo-political imaginations have dictated the formation of informal dialogue mechanisms and multilateral structures. During Cold War, the power bloc politics have subsumed these geographical definitions and have transcended national sovereign boundaries. In the contemporary discourse, new formulations like Asia-Pacific, East Asia and Indian Ocean have defined new politico-security thinking. The concept of Indo-Pacific is an over-arching geopolitical imagination which addresses new challenges in political, economic and maritime domains. This book addresses this new concept and debates its viability.

The BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar) Forum (earlier known as the Kunming Initiative) was founded as a Track-II Dialogue in 1999 with the objective of widening and deepening regional and sub-regional cooperation. Over the years, member countries of the forum have strived to work together on issues such as trade tourism and connectivity as well as cooperation in social, cultural and academic fields to enhance interactions at all levels. While physical connectivity for the BCIM-EC is important, it is equally important to consider various soft connectivity inputs into the project considering that the member countries together constitute a market of 2.8 billion people and a GDP of more than US$ 9 trillion. Swift economic transitions in Myanmar have given a fillip to India and China's attempts to promote growth and development in their respective border provinces. These developments inter-alia have led to mushrooming of sub-regional cooperation that involves trade facilitation measures in its broadest meaning to include transit and motor vehicles agreements, customs procedures, special arrangements for border trade, etc. The BCIM-EC project would need to assess the potential benefits to India, particularly to the North East Region. The infrastructural needs of this sub-region as well as the prospects for enhanced trade and investments, revival of traditional industries and other welfare gains would require careful analyses. This book attempts to analyse such issues in addition to assessing the opportunities that BCIM-EC offers, and challenges that it faced with.