I am going to discuss the importance of Myanmar for India and its role in India’s Look East Policy and finally the evolution and progress of Myanmar-India Connectivity Projects. I’ll give you brief   on why my matter is important and in that process I raise a few questions that are relevant in the context. The questions are:

What are the contents of India’s Look East Policy? How and Why does Myanmar fit into it? What major initiative in the context of Myanmar-India Connectivity Projects? What have been the developments of it and let me also briefly touch upon the issues the problem that the two size are facing connecting to each other. So let’s get started.

In the past post-cold war years that is from 1991 on, the geopolitical and economic considerations compel India to look east. India was also frustrated by the slow pace of Asian cooperation attempts to SAARC that is South Association of Asian Cooperation. It was our prime minister of India Narasimha Rao initiated Look East Policy in 1992. And in the past two decades, India has been successful in engaging ASEAN and its ten member countries, India and ASEAN have elevated their relations to that of Strategic Partnership. India-ASEAN interactions are held at some levels over years, all of us know that. India is also an active member of area of East Asia Summit, a member of other affiliated institution. The relationship brought a massive fruit of the signing and fully implementation of India- ASEAN FTA and goods. The agreement has also been proved and likely to rip benefits for India and member countries of ASEAN when it gets implemented.

So far as Myanmar’s role is concerned, it has been a critically important neighborhood for India. The two countries share bondage for more two millennia. Myanmar is strategically located at the tri-junction of China, India and the Southeast Asian region and has played a crucial role in shaping the domestic politics and foreign policies calculus of India. All of us know about the world war and Japanese Invasion to Southeast Asian and how that affected India’s security. India shares more than 1600 km long border with Myanmar. Clearly as the chair36:39said: the defense of Burma is the defense of India and he said that back to 1945. So clearly Myanmar security backs the security situation of India, particularly the Northeastern states. Myanmar’s opening to the world offers India plenty of opportunities to boost relations with Southeast Asian and countries beyond. However, insurgents, drug peddlers and timber mafia operating along the border space grave challenges to India’s internal security.  Now in order to give a fill-up connectivity, India has to aided $500,000,000, a line of credit upbringing the Keletwa-Yoky section of trilateral highway and it’s also rebuilding 71 bridges in Myanmar.

So far as the recent developments are concerned, ever since Narendra Modi assumed office as India’s prime minister, speculations regarding his foreign policy priorities arise. There are somebody that he is too obsessive with South Asian just ASSARC member countries and marituas. But if you look at the symbolic level, it seems that yes he is more focused on South East Asian and China. But at a substantive level, the highlights of Modi’s foreign Policy will showcase. And Indian President Pranab Mukherjee address to the joint session of Indian parliament on June 9th, 2014. and the first one in that regard is promoting regional connectivity and that connects meet my presentation today. In his address president Mukherjee put up a plan of interregional connectivity. In the recent years, India has actively pursued the idea of grand Southeast connectivity linked with Myanmar and the countries in the Southeast region. ARail and road link with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan have also been brought on with some success. In that context,India’s initiatives with Myanmar have been remarkable. India has clearly travelled more than half to bring Myanmar along in terms of infrastructure development and connectivity. India has initiated projects such as Kaladan Multi-modal transit transport project and reviving national waterways to link with Myanmar. Now in June 2014, India and Myanmar agreed on a weekly us service- connecting Imphal,Moreh, Tamu, Kalewa, Monywa and Mandalay towns. Visa and other facilities will also been given to the tourists. This route is 579 kilometers long and is likely to be operated in October 2014 marking the beginning of direct route links between India and Myanmar. Now the Kaladan Multi-modal transit transport project will also be completed by the end of 2014. However the Slow progress of the Sittwe project has had India’s energy interest but I must sayThe Chennai-Dawei Corridor is another gate opportunity for India which involves Myanmar. Kaladan, as we know, which is a multi-route project involving port, inland waterways and route networks. It is funded by India’s Ministry of External Affairs and provides ultimate connectivity to Northeast with mainland India toKaladan river and Sittwe port in Myanmar. The river Kaladan is navigatable near Sittwe up to kaletwa. From Sittwe port to kaletwa, transportations will be by waterways and from Kaletwa to India-Myanmar border transportation will be by road. The key component of the project include the construction of a inland water transport terminal and related infrastructure facilities at the port of Sitwe in Myanmar for transshipment of inland vessels and vice versa including the development of the navigate Chin Channels. Here is a picture showing you the proposed route of Kaladan Multi-modal transit transport project.

Now coming to the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway. It’s a cross- border transportation network financed by the governments of these three countries and developed by the public sector, 1360 km long highway which will link Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand through Bagan in Myanmar. The alignment of highway force within the Asian highways is one and two and that makes the Trilateral Highway very important to us. It is been pursued by UN the agreed route of IMTTH as mentioned here. The trilateral highway is an initiative of the Mekong-Bangel cooperation initiative, a sub-region cooperation scheme that includes India and five countries of the Mekong River, and we know they are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The Trilateral Highway is divided into three phases. I won’t get into details of that. During the visit of the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singhhe announced that India will rebuid and upgrades 71 bridges on the Tamu-Kelatwafriendship road. And two countries have also agreed to make this trilateral highway a reality by 2016. This is a map of proposed India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway.

Coming to the The Chennai- Dawei Corridor. It’links India’s southern city of Chennai and Myanmar’s southern with Dawei which is in Tanintharryi state. In early 2008, Myanmar and Thailand agreed to develop deep sea port in Dawei and connect it to a route link to Bangkok.The project includes the development of Dawei seaport, industrial estate, trans-border corridor, highways and railroad links to Thailand. The entire project is estimated at around US$ 58 billion. The idea of damping a deep sea port in Dawei was originally discussed years ago by Thailand as an alternative route to the strait of Malacca. Though Thailand is a deep obstacle in Dawei project, India’s interest in the development of this port has gone to different pages, much before Thailand and Myanmar agreed to develop the Dawei project. In 2004, Dehli had offered to conduct a feasibility study on Daiwei sea port linkage between the port and Kachin in Thailand. . However, due to inexplicable reasons, Delhi stayed out of the project. It is only in 2005 when former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra visited New Delhi in January 2005, she invited India to help with construction of sea port and India stated its re-engagement in the project.

Let’s see what the other concerns for India are. I think the biggest concern for India, if the route and way of connectivity, sea port connectivity happens, the biggest concern will be the illegal immigrates. How to deal with the influx of the Bangladesh immigrates is one big challenge for India. Of course the illegal trade are another challenges for India. India’s border security is another concern which includes insurgency because the government of India feels that due to the fact that northeast states of India are infested by insurgent groups and it’s not going to be easy for India. The challenges whether you look at the border as your frontier or as a gateway to connect with other countries. So this dilemma is persistent in India’s south block , we still feels that borders are safeguards and they are not gateways to connect to the countries. However, situation is slowly and gradually changing.

Now to sum up, I continue by saying that the legacy of Myanmar-India relations and connectivity dating back to the ancient times must be restored by working on the initiatives that bring it in tune with the realities and requirements of contemporary times which includes individual connectivity, connecting with Myanmar and countries beyond two railroad and air-connectivity to the broad connectivity. And in that context, India’s endeavors to connect with Myanmar and Southeast Asia will fructify only when India is linked to the region through all means. And acting in that account India’s air is attempting to have air connectivity with Myanmar is another great achievement. India is also planning to connect with Thailand, with Vietnam through air links.

I think in that context India has to connect with the region to all means, that is air, land and sea. We cannot overlook New Delhi’s attempts to the initiatives and on these fronts. There is a lot to be done. I hope in the coming years see some more sectors on India on that account.