When the BIMSTEC was established in 1997, the Leaders of the Member States advocated for peaceful and progressive development in the region. BIMSTEC Leaders recognized that the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime was one of the important prerequisite for sustainable growth and maintenance of peace in the region.

The First BIMSTEC Summit held on 31 July 2004, at Bangkok, Thailand expressed grave concern at the continuing threat of international terrorism and transnational crime that adversely affected the economic and social progress of the peoples of the BIMSTEC region and recognized that the solidarity and friendship existing among Member States could be utilized as a basis to counter this threat. The Leaders agreed, as an urgent priority, to coordinate efforts to combat this menace; including through the exchange of information among concerned agencies, and other concrete programmes of co-operation, and resolve to continue active co-operation in on-going efforts of the international community in combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, by whosoever it is perpetrated irrespective of its cause or stated rationale.

Taking note of the emphasis placed by the First Summit on combating terrorism and transnational crimes, the 8th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 18-19 December 2005 added Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) as one of the priority sectors of BIMSTEC. the 8th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting decided to create BIMSTEC Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (JWG-CTTC) to enhance cooperation at both policy and operational levels to counter all forms of terrorism and transnational crime.

The First Meeting of JWG-CTTC held in New Delhi, India on 05-07 December 2004 decided to establish four Sub-Groups viz (i) Sub-Group on Intelligence Sharing (ii) Sub-Group on Legal and Law Enforcement Issues (iii) Sub-Group on Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Precursor Chemicals and (iv) Sub-Group on Anti- Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. In 2017, two more Sub-Groups were added namely, (v) Sub-Group on Cooperation on Countering Radicalization and Terrorism; and (vi) Sub-Group on Human Trafficking. Basically, the JWG-CTTC supervises and guides its constituent six sub-groups mandated by its own Terms of Reference (ToR). 

# List of Meetings of JWG-CTTC held so far: