SPECIAL - The Role of India’s Northeast in the Regional Cooperation Architecture

of the Northeast and emphasises the potential and Such engagement will enhance regional solidarity challenges of connectivity efforts in the region; at the political, economic, and societal levels. [...] 9 & 10 in the Protocol will Bahadurabad in Bangladesh and Dhulian, Maia, improve the connectivity of Tripura and adjoining Kolaghat, Sonamura and Jogigophs in India, states with the hinterland of both the countries. [...] The Barak– in May (which added the Sonamura-Daudkhandi Meghna river system has a total length of 900 km: route and extended some of the others) and the 524 km is in India, 31 km on the India–Bangladesh trial shipment of Indian goods from Kolkata to border, and the rest in Bangladesh. [...] It is largely perceived as an “interconnected space across the two continents of Asia and Africa and India is crucial to the geopolitics of the region between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean”. [...] The Bay espoused the vision of a Free and Open Indo- of Bengal is at the heart of the Indo-Pacific, and its Pacific (FOIP).