Regional cooperation is a stepping stone for economic integration within a geographic region. It may be market-driven integration without any explicit agreement implying that private sector is actively engaged in bringing convergence among the economies. Economic integration may also be pursued through cooperation agreements among the countries of the region which are mainly policy induced integration. Many regions across the world are engaged in comprehensive economic partnership agreements. This paper brings out the characteristics of BIMSTEC and argues that the BIMSTEC focus area has strong impact on the Asian way of integration.