Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla convened the first meeting of an “Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group (IMCG)” involving secretaries of about ten ministries as well as senior officials from the Cabinet Secretariat and National Security Council Secretariat to ensure a more efficient and “whole-of-government” approach to crises in the South Asian neighborhood, including Pakistan.
The conference, which took place in the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan of the Ministry of External Affairs, aimed to “mainstream” India’s “Neighbourhood First” strategy, according to an MEA statement. In addition, the inclusion of Ministries such as Commerce, Finance, Fisheries, and Security organizations, according to sources, would allow for faster decision-making in the event of unforeseen economic crises, as well as flashpoints over border fire, fishing, and prisoners in neighboring nations.
Relationships between countries discussed in IMCG
In a tweet, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated, “The IMCG gave comprehensive direction with a whole-of-government approach to encourage improved connection, stronger interlinkages, and greater people-to-people contact with our neighbors.”
“The meeting deliberated on and took important decisions on various aspects of India’s bilateral relationship with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in the areas of trade and investment, connectivity, border infrastructure, immigration, development cooperation, border security, and so on,” said the MEA statement, emphasizing that the SAARC countries, as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, are all members of the SAARC.
According to sources, the IMCG would be used for a variety of purposes, including the construction of border infrastructure to aid trade with Nepal, the provision of essential commodities to Bhutan and the Maldives in an emergency, such as during the Covid lockdown, rail connectivity with Bangladesh, humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and Myanmar, and the resolution of the fisheries issue with Sri Lanka, which has previously caused tensions. Furthermore, the presence of security and border officials suggests that the IMCG may be called to help alleviate tensions along with Pakistan’s, Nepal’s, and Bangladesh’s land borders.
Sri Lanka is a flashpoint
While officials claim the IMCG has been in the works for some time, the timing is crucial because it comes just days after large protests over Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, which announced it will default on foreign debt on Tuesday.
During a visit to Delhi in February 2020, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe initially asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for help with the country’s twin debt and foreign exchange difficulties. Due to legal and accounting bureaucracy wranglings regarding demands for debt exemptions, currency swap arrangements, and Lines of Credit to assist stave off the crisis, no headway was made in the following months, despite an in-principle nod for support.
Political relations were tense over a number of issues, according to sources, and it wasn’t until the end of 2021 that EAM S. Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and then-Sri Lankan Finance Minister met to resolve the package of support that India approved worth $2.4 billion since January 2022, while Bangladesh assisted Sri Lanka with a currency swap arrangement.
“In addition to the IMCG mechanism, Ministries and Departments have been asked to give India’s neighbors priority in their international operations, initiatives, and projects,” sources said, adding that the MEA had conducted a “training module” on India’s neighbors for civil service trainees this year.