SPEAKING
FREELY India courts a
junta By Renaud Egreteau
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NEW
DELHI - The recent bilateral exchanges between India and
Myanmar have pointed out a new strategic partnership
that New Delhi intends to establish with its eastern
neighbor's military rulers. After having defined an
idealist policy toward Burma, as it was then known,
India made a U-turn in the mid-1990s to engage the
junta. Now the Indian establishment is ready to set up a
close relationship with the dictatorship, especially as
far as military stakes are concerned.
Indeed,
early this month, Indian moves toward the ruling junta
(State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC) got
another boost. The chief of naval staff of the Indian
navy, Admiral Madhvendra Singh, paid a four-day official
visit (September 3-8) to Myanmar, the first of its kind
for almost three decades. As proof that Myanmar also has
an interest in close cooperation with India, all of
Myanmar's top leaders made it a point of honor to
welcome the Indian military's delegation. Senior General
Than Shwe, SPDC vice chairman General Maung Aye, newly
appointed Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and Foreign Affairs
Minister Win Aung all met Admiral Singh in Yangon.
Officially, the Indian navy is looking for naval
cooperation with the Myanmar navy along the
1,930-kilometer-long Myanmar coastline. India's access
to several Myanmar naval facilities will definitely be a
major breakthrough in the geostrategy of the region, but
now India is keen on getting port rights in Myanmar.
India is seeking operational access for Indian ships to
berth and refuel in Myanmar ports, thus reducing the
dependency of Indian military vessels on fuel tankers in
the Andaman Sea. India is trying to expend its naval
presence beyond the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after
having decided in 2000 to set up a new military base in
Port-Blair on South Andaman Island (Far Eastern Naval
Command) and is keen on keeping an eye on the mouth of
the strategic Malacca Straits.
Yet apart from
these official discussions, many sensitive hidden issues
are supposed to have been raised during Admiral Singh's
trip. Last year India showed its willingness to sell
weapons to Myanmar after decades of staunch refusal.
Military exchanges were reported across the
India-Myanmar border last November and January. Then, in
May, Myanmar's ambassador to India, U Kyaw Thu, admitted
that his country was ready to buy Indian arms if India
was ready to sell them. This was the case when the
Indian Defense Ministry confirmed the sale of 80
Howitzers (tracked field cannons) to Myanmar last May,
even though Defense Minister George Fernandes might have
been opposed to the agreement (he has been known for his
commitment to human rights and civil liberties in Tibet
and Myanmar and has welcomed many Myanmar refugees into
his own residence).
India has tried to counter
the arch-rival relations thrust into Myanmar when
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf went on a
diplomatic visit to Yangon along with an Agosta
submarine in May 2001. Pakistani vessels are already
reported to be refueling and berthing in Myanmar
harbors. But above all, it seems that the "China threat"
was India's guiding motivation to get closer to Myanmar.
India has long been worried about the Chinese military
influence over the Myanmar junta, especially as far as
the Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean is concerned.
China is supposed to have set up monitoring posts and
listening facilities along the Myanmar coast (Hainggyi,
Sakanthit, Zadetkyi and Greater Coco) and Chinese
engineers have taken on the upgrading of many Myanmar
ports (Ramree, Seikkyi, Kyaikkami). Interestingly, India
is also discussing the construction of a new port in
Sittwe, Rakhine state, where the Chinese have already
developed a naval base. New Delhi is trying to open up
its landlocked northeastern states thanks to the Kaladan
River, which flows from Mizoram to Sittwe on the Bay of
Bengal through Chin and Rakhine states.
After
the visit of Admiral Singh, who also went to Mandalay,
where India opened a consulate last September (before,
only China had a diplomatic presence in the ancient
royal capital; as a consequence, the Indian move could
not but be seen as an attempt to counterbalance the
Chinese presence wherever it is in Myanmar), the Indian
and Myanmar navies conducted their first joint military
operation. This September 10, two Indian Khukri-class
naval corvettes berthed at Yangon military harbor to
begin a four-day exercise.
The high-level
exchanges between India and Myanmar were also
highlighted by the Myanmar air force chief's visit to
India just a day before Admiral Singh embarked for
Yangon this month. Major-General Myat Hein went on a
week-long diplomatic mission in India to get better
training facilities from its western neighbor. India,
known for its decades-long knowledge of Soviet and
Russian weaponry, is thought to have given military
training to Myanmar air force officers (Myanmar acquired
a squadron of MiG-29 in 2001). The Myanmar delegation
visited major Indian air force bases and had talks with
the Indian air chief, Marshal S Krishnaswamy, and army
chief N C Vij.
India has chosen to engage the
SPDC openly to gain a close partnership with it.
According to Indian policymakers, New Delhi can no
longer ignore nor oppose head-on its eastern neighbor,
and this realist approach has all the signs of
continuing. India now takes a step forward by setting up
a close military cooperation with the Myanmar regime.
Since 1988, China has been the only power to
have a foothold in Myanmar. India is now entering the
game after a decade of hesitancy. While dropping its
commitment to the restoration of a democratic Myanmar,
India is wooing the junta for its own strategic interest
in order to checkmate China. But does it suit the
so-called "greatest democracy of the world"?
Renaud Egreteau is a research fellow
based at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi,
India.
(Copyright Renaud Egreteau)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Please click hereif you
are interested in contributing.
Sep 20, 2003
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