Saran to push for Kaladan project

The project is also expected to include the building of a pipeline that will bring natural gas from Myanmar into the North-East.

The economic, security and geopolitical stakes for India are so high in Myanmar that it is prepared to overlook the growing Western criticism of its engagement with Yangon.

These concerns are expected to mount next week, when detained leader of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi marks her sixty first birthday on Monday.

India’s concerns for peace, security and development in the N-E coupled with its worries over China’s growing economic presence in Myanmar, however, have driven New Delhi’s expanding political and economic engagement with Yangon.

Given the 1600-km land border with Myanmar, and the shared maritime space in the Bay of Bengal, New Delhi believes it does not have the luxury of elevating its commitment to democratic values above the immediate economic and strategic interests there.

The West has for years applied economic pressure on the military rulers in Yangon. The regime had overturned the results of 1988 general elections that had given a stunning victory to the democratic forces and arrested Suu Kyi.

Although India had supported the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar in the late 1980s, it had reversed direction in the early 1990s to begin a ‘‘constructive engagement’’ with the regime.

Barely days after US President George W. Bush was in India last March criticising the military regime in Yangon, President Abdul Kalam travelled to Myanmar to strengthen bilateral cooperation. Kalam, in a small gesture to the international and domestic concerns, did mention India’s hopes for the restoration of democracy in Myanmar at the end of his visit.

Saran will now go to Yangon for the regular ‘‘foreign office consultations”. Saran, who had earlier served as ambassador to Myanmar, is familiar with the full range of India’s interests in this important eastern neighbour.

His emphasis will be on the rapid implementation of many economic proposals, including the Kaladan project, expansion of road connectivity to South East Asia through Myanmar and cooperation in the energy sector.

Goods from the N-E states denied transit facilities through Bangladesh, now take a long and circuitous road to ports in West Bengal through the narrow Siliguri corridor. The Kaladan project will now provide a shorter and cheaper link to the seas. The Sittwe port is not too far off Kolkata across the Bay of Bengal. The Indian public sector company, RITES, is expected to shortly take charge of the project.

The Indian determination to quicken the pace of implementation of the Kaladan project comes amidst the recent decision in Beijing to build a pipeline from the South Western province of Yunnan to the Sittwe port.