Waterworlds

Well over a decade after India decided to energise its Look East policy,Thailand remains a vastly underestimated country in its East Asian diplomacy. The outreach to Bangkok,with Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra invited as the Republic Day chief guest this year,provides a welcome signal that Delhi is rectifying this inexplicable gap in its diplomacy.

Politics and infrastructure development in the Asean region are remaking the map,especially with respect to the great sea-lanes of the east,and Thailand is thinking imaginatively to leverage its location. Reflecting this ambition and foresight during her Delhi visit,Shinawatra has emphasised Thailands commitment to development of a deep-sea port and industrial complex at Dawei,in the Burmese peninsula. For India,this offers the chance to develop a Chennai-Dawei-Bangkok corridor. A substantial percentage of Indias trade passes through the Straits of Malacca. And in the context of hectic Chinese development of ports along the Indian Ocean,as too Beijings new aggressiveness in the South China Sea,the task of securing its economic interests is compelling India to think constructively,yet non-confrontationally,about its participation in naval partnerships and infrastructure development. Indeed,the US and Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Indonesia have invited Delhi to deepen its participation. The Dawei link would allow India to fulfil its long-held desire for alternative,shorter routes eastwards. For long,the emphasis has been on developing land connectivity and while terrain and localised security issues have posed insurmountable obstacles,that effort cannot be aborted. Meanwhile,maritime corridors,like Chennai-Dawei across the Bay of Bengal,offer simpler,quicker and durable solutions.

The Dawei opportunity is also consolidated by a fortuitous turn in Burmas internal politics. Indian diplomacy can take much credit for persevering all these years in attempting to reconcile the distance between the junta and the pro-democracy movement. Now with a bold and reformist president in office in Naypyidaw,Burma presents an administration less anxious about its immediate survival and more able to look at the long term in deepening trade and security partnerships. Significantly,Dawei came up during talks in the Burmese foreign ministers visit to Delhi this month.