Asian Highway takes Myanmar route, Bangladesh hits dead end

This sets the stage for a sub-regional connectivity between India, Myanmar and Thailand and, at a later stage, possibly China.

During talks with Singh, Myanmar President Thein Sein sought India’s financial and technological assistance in construction and upgrading of the 120-kilometre Kalewa-Yargi segment of a highway in that country, which constitutes part of the proposed Asian Highway network. For its part, Myanmar will take up the construction of the Yargi-Monywa segment of the highway which will help connect Manipur state in India to Mae Sot in Thailand, passing through Myanmar. The project, which will provide seamless transit connectivity, is expected to be completed by 2016.

The two countries also discussed the possibility of Indian participation in development of key infrastructure projects like Dawei port on the Bay of Bengal in southern Myanmar, very close to Thailand, which will give India much easier access to Southeast and East Asia. It was in fact Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who had, during her visit to India in January this year, proposed the link between the Indian city of Chennai and Dawei by building a deep-sea port and a massive industrial complex in Dawei. What Yingluck proposed was the revival of a moribund tri-nation project first talked about a decade ago. During Singh’s visit, the Myanmar government sent clear signals about its interest in developing Dawei with India’s help.

The countries also agreed to set up a joint working group which will examine enhancing rail links, and signed an agreement that will allow airlines of India and Myanmar to cover more destinations in each other’s territory and pick up passengers from there on way to third countries.

India is also engaged in building a multi-mode transport project over the Kaladan river in Myanmar and road and waterway linkages between Sittwe port in Chin state of that country and Mizoram, another northeast Indian state bordering Myanmar. The projects will give India easier access to its northeastern states and an additional opening to the Bay of Bengal.

Where does the emerging scenario of connectivity between India, Myanmar and Thailand leave Bangladesh, which too holds the potential of being a gateway to Southeast Asia and a transit hub through Chittagong and Mongla ports?

While India and Myanmar gallop ahead to improve their connectivity, transit links between Bangladesh and India remain a non-starter because the issue has been highly politicised by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The question that Dhaka must ask itself is whether it is willing to be squeezed out of a larger picture.

There is no doubt that once the Kalandan multi-mode project is completed, India will get much easier access to its northeastern states than through the “Chicken’s Neck”, a narrow corridor through West Bengal and Assam states. This could reduce India’s dependence on transit through Bangladesh to its Northeast.

For Bangladesh, transit with northeast India will facilitate its connectivity with Myanmar. This has acquired more importance after China gave up plans to build a rail link between Chittagong and eastern China’s city of Kunming through Myanmar following opposition from Myanmar. Myanmar’s opposition to Chittagong-Kunming link is not surprising considering that the country is reaching out to the West and India at a time when it is taking a democratic path on which China will be of little help.

Bangladesh now faces the risk of being left by the roadside once India-Myanmar connectivity is completed in four years’ time.

What is more important is that there is a bipartisan consensus in Myanmar – between the government and the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi – on multi-modal connectivity with India. It is for this reason that Manmohan Singh said that Myanmar is a “critical partner” in India’s “Look East” policy and that Myanmar “is perfectly situated to play the role of an economic bridge between India and China and between South and Southeast Asia. We should work together to create a regional economy that can become a hub for trade, investment and communication in the region.”

As Myanmar opens up after decades of diplomatic isolation, it appears ready to seize the opportunity of an economic resurgence by leveraging with both regional powerhouses – India and China. With Myanmar having chosen that path, can Bangladesh, which is no less advantageously located geographically, be far behind? If Bangladesh and northeast India can establish seamless multi-mode transport links, it will be a win-win situation for both by integrating with India-Myanmar-Thailand connectivity network.

If Myanmar can use its geographic position to become the economic hub of the region, does Bangladesh not also deserve to be so? Dhaka needs to make up its mind.