Combating of terrorism, transnational organized crime and illicit drug trafficking will feature prominently at the second Summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) to be held at New Delhi on November 13. 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will attend the Summit together with leaders from other BIMSTEC states – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. 

The second BIMSTEC Summit, which comes after four years since the first Summit was held in Bangkok is scheduled to finalize several agreements for the BIMSTEC region on energy, culture, weather and climate especially counter terrorism and transnational crime. 

BIMSTEC was formed in Bangkok on June 6, 1997 as a new sub-regional grouping named BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lankan and Thailand Economic Cooperation).  Myanmar joined the Organization as a full member at a Special Ministerial Meeting held in Bangkok on 22 December 1997, upon which the name of the grouping was changed to BIMST-EC. Nepal was granted observer status by the Second Ministerial Meeting in Dhaka in December 1998. Subsequently, full membership has been granted to Nepal and Bhutan in 2003. 

At the first Summit on July 31, 2004, leaders of the group agreed that the name of the grouping should be known as BIMSTEC or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. 

Seven members of BIMSTEC covers 13 Priority Sectors lead by member countries in a voluntary manner namely, Trade & Investment, Technology, Energy, Transport &Communication, Tourism, Fisheries, Agriculture, Cultural Cooperation, Environment and Disaster Management, Public Health, People-to-People Contract, Poverty Alleviation and Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes. 

BIMSTEC brings together 1.4 billion people - 21 percent of the world population, a combined GDP of US$750 billion, and a considerable amount of complementarities.