Opinion Road to Mandalay
With a land route deep into Myanmar, anything is possible. Even flying fishes at play.
India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway could potentially increase intraregional trade.
The Look East policy brings fresh cheer for the new year, as the road to Mandalay seems to lie open and a quick drive across to Chiang Mai is no longer the stuff of wistful imagination. By March, the government is expected to ink an agreement for road transport via a highway between India, Myanmar and Thailand. Along with the obvious benefits to the mobility of goods and labour in the eastern region, there is diplomatic capital to be made. The Chinese had endeared themselves in the lands to our east by improving local highways and connecting them with their own highway system, opening up traditionally inaccessible parts of the hinterland to international traffic. Thai and Japanese interests have moved into Myanmar now, but India always has the opportunity to forge stronger links on the strength of proximity and specific needs, such as medical tourism.
The Imphal-Mandalay bus service, proposed in 2012, can finally see the green light somewhere in the middle distance. The proposal to connect with the leading city of north Myanmar, whose very name is laden with historical associations for many Indians, has been cleared by the Indian ministry of external affairs. Now, corresponding clearance is awaited from its Myanmarese counterpart, after which the Border Roads Organisation will set to work improving road quality on the other side of the border.
South Asia needs to recapture the spirit of old, when a highway ran across its breadth from Peshawar to Dhaka. Today, the domain in our region across which goods, services, labour and tourists could flow ranges from Afghanistan to Vietnam, and includes swathes in which Chinese interests have been active for years. For too long, India has lived with the anxiety of being encircled by Chinese assets. The Imphal-Mandalay road can serve as the seed of an open-handed, open-hearted outreach programme which can clear the air and improve the basis on which the two major powers of the region relate to each other.
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