India bends over for Myanmar's
generals By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - India has finalized a
multi-million dollar project with Myanmar aimed at
boosting the economy of its underdeveloped and
strife-torn northeast region. Loose ends of the
project have been tied up and a deal sealed with
the generals, even as sections of the
international community call for sanctions against
Myanmar's military rulers.
The Kaladan
multi-modal transport project envisages connecting
India's northeastern region with the Bay of
Bengal. It involves constructing roads linking the
Indian state of Mizoram with
Kaletwa
in Myanmar, development of the Kaladan River as a
waterway and improving the infrastructure of the
port at Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's Arakan
province. Sittwe is situated at the point where
the Kaladan River empties into the Bay of Bengal.
The project will give goods from India's
landlocked northeast access to the sea.
The project, which India first proposed in
2003, was agreed to in principle by both sides in
February. Its finalizing would not have grabbed as
much media attention as it did had it not
coincided with the political crisis in Myanmar.
The India-Myanmar handshake over the
Kaladan project comes at a time when Myanmar's
military rulers are being internationally
criticized for their refusal to restore democracy
in the country and for their crackdown on ongoing
pro-democracy protests. It comes at a time when
India's (and China's) economic and military
support to Myanmar's generals is being blamed for
the junta's survival in the face of international
sanctions.
It was at the height of the
pro-democracy protests in Myanmar and
international criticism of India's support of the
generals that India's Petroleum Minister Murli
Deora visited Myanmar, pledging an investment of
US$150 million in gas exploration. Three
agreements between India's state-run Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation and its counterpart the
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise were signed during
the visit, providing for exploration for gas in
three deep-water exploration blocks, AD-2, AD-3
and AD-9, off the Arakan coast.
Within
weeks of that controversial visit, India has
sealed another deal with the generals. Agreement
on the Kaladan project was not easy to reach.
India has been more keen than Myanmar to clinch
the deal. Delhi appears to have bent over
backwards to get the generals on board.
Given that India is investing heavily in
the project, it wanted to retain control over
Sittwe port. This was not acceptable to the
generals. India subsequently agreed to hand over
the port after its upgrade. Besides, the generals
after initially committing to put in $10 million
backed out. India has now agreed to extend Myanmar
a soft loan of $10 million. Thus the project deal
was done on the generals' terms.
India's
interest in the Kaladan project stems from
latter's potential to transform the economy of its
northeastern states. Once completed - it is
expected to take about four years - the Kaladan
project will facilitate the transport of goods by
road and river from the landlocked northeastern
states - the Kaladan River runs from Mizoram in
India through Myanmar's China and Arakan states to
empty into the Bay of Bengal - to Sittwe port and
from there on to markets in Southeast Asia and
beyond.
The project is not the only one
that India is pursuing with Myanmar with an eye on
improving the connectivity of its northeast with
Southeast Asian markets. India has constructed a
road linking Moreh in the the northeastern state
of Manipur with Kalewa in Myanmar. Called the
Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road and built at a cost
of $30 million, the road will eventually run up to
Mandalay.
Then there is the old Stilwell
Road, which runs from Assam in India through
Myanmar to Yunnan in China. Vast stretches of this
World War II road are in abysmal condition or
simply don't exist. Efforts are on to repair and
renovate the road. India (and China) are hoping
that once the entire road is repaired and ready
for use, Myanmar will be willing to reopen it.
Stilwell Road will open Chinese markets to goods
from the northeast.
There is a plan too to
link by rail the northeastern state of Manipur
with Myanmar. This project will involve
construction of the Jiribam-Imphal-Moreh railway
line in Manipur and the Tamu-Kalay-Segyi line in
Myanmar, as well as repairing Myanmar's existing
Segyi-Chaungu Myohaung line.
With the
construction of the rail line between India and
Myanmar, India will be linked by rail to Southeast
Asia. And "since Myanmar is getting a rail link
with China, to be completed in around three years,
a link with Myanmar could help India reach China
and then right up to Russia", Jay Prakash Batra,
chairman of both the Indian Railway Board and the
International Union of Railways (the Paris-based
organization that works for cooperation between
different railway systems), said late last year.
Indian officials point out that economic
development of the northeast requires greater
interaction with neighboring countries such as
Myanmar. India's northeastern region shares a
4,500 kilometer international border with
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China but connects
with the rest of India by a 22-kilometer strip of
land called the Siliguri Corridor. Ninety-eight
percent of the northeast's borders are with other
countries, and only 2% with India. Improving ties
with these neighbors is essential. Unlike
Bangladesh, Myanmar's rulers have been more
willing to trade with India.
Besides,
links with Myanmar are essential for India, if
Delhi is serious about taking its "Look East"
policy forward. Myanmar is, after all, India's
land bridge with Southeast Asia.
There are
other reasons behind India's courting of the
generals. It is concerned with China's immense
influence and presence in Myanmar, which has
implications for India's security. Another is to
get the generals to shut down camps run by
anti-India insurgent groups on Myanmar's soil.
India realized that its counter-insurgency
operations in the northeastern states would not be
effective unless it had the support of Myanmar's
military rulers.
There is also the
question of India's energy security. Myanmar has
rich gas reserves, which India is eager to access.
An Indian government official told Asia Times
Online that the visit of the petroleum minister to
Myanmar at the height of the protests was poorly
timed but cancelation of the visit would have
jeopardized India's already tenuous relations with
the generals.
Indian officials, who until
recently believed that the decision of Asia's
largest democracy to tone down its expression of
support to the pro-democracy movement and deal
with Myanmar's military rulers had paid off, have
in recent months become more cautious in their
assessment of the influence they wield over the
generals.
The Sino-Indian contest for
access to Myanmar's gas reserves has gone in favor
of China. A couple of months ago, Myanmar
announced that it was withdrawing India's status
of "preferential buyer" on the A1 and A3 blocks of
its Shwe gas fields off its Arakan coast and said
it intended selling gas to China.
"India
is unable to match what China is willing to offer
the generals - supply of whatever military
equipment they demand and use of the veto in their
defense in the Security Council. Over a decade
after it began engaging the junta, India is still
not as comfortable with the generals as China is,"
the official pointed out.
The limited
gains wooing the generals notwithstanding, India
is not about to reverse its policy of doing
business with the junta. "It is because India
refused to engage the Myanmar generals for decades
that the space in that country was left open for
China to fill. A pullback now would be a repeat of
that blunder," the official said.
Indian
officials dismiss Western criticism of India's
Myanmar policy. India shares borders with Myanmar;
the US and others do not. Their economic
investment in Myanmar is limited; hence the
pontification and their support for sanctions
against Myanmar, the official said.
Besides, if India were to do business only
with democracies, it would be hard-pressed to find
suitable partners in its neighborhood.
Sudha Ramachandran is an
independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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