The Bay of Bengal, bridging South and Southeast Asia, has historically been a corridor of connectivity and prosperity, shaping trade, culture, and livelihoods across the region. Today, it remains central to India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy, promising great opportunities for development in the areas of  “Blue economy”,  maritime and coastal connectivity and the security and prosperity of the whole region. It is also one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable geographies, experiencing frequent cyclones, erratic monsoons, and shifting agricultural patterns and home to one in every four person on the planet making it extremely vulnerable to non-traditional security threats.

Asian Confluence established the Centre for Bay of Bengal Studies in October 2025 in Shillong to promote research, dialogue, and collaboration on the region’s shared future. The centre aims to foster “third space” cooperation amongst stakeholders in the  states and nations of the Bay of Bengal region. Its inaugural session brought together diplomatic representatives from BIMSTEC, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Japan, and marked the launch of the Centre’s inaugural souvenir—a curated volume of scholarly essays organised around four themes: Reimagining the Bay, The Bay of Bengal and Northeast India’s hinterland, Connectivity and Trade, and Regional Geopolitics and Geoeconomics.

Since then, the Centre has served as a hub for key engagements on the Bay of Bengal, including through roundtables such as Myanmar: Building New Pathways in the Post-Election Scenario and Bay of Bengal Region: Collaborations for the Way Forward. A podcast series titled Reimagining the Bay of Bengal has also been launched, which brings together expert perspectives on the region’s strategic, economic, and cultural significance, with a focus on regional cooperation, connectivity, and shared resilience across the Bay of Bengal and the wider Indo-Pacific.

In May 2026, the Centre has launched the ‘Signature Series’ which convenes diplomats, policymakers, civil society and academia to engage in critical discussions on contemporary geopolitical developments in the Bay of Bengal and the wider Indo-Pacific region. It aims to generate policy-relevant insights, strengthen bilateral and regional dialogue, and foreground the strategic significance of North-East India. In an era defined by intensifying conflicts and great power competition, supply chain realignments, and the growing influence of middle powers, the Signature Series seeks to facilitate informed, forward-looking conversations that contribute to collaborative approaches in addressing regional and global challenges. The inaugural edition of the series was hosted on May 6, 2026 on "Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal: Emerging Contours in Australia - India Partnerships: Engaging the North-East Indian States”.