Reforming Myanmar looks to India for enlightenment
* India concerned being encircled by Chinese “string of
pearls”By Frank Jack DanielNEW DELHI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Traditional dress for men in
Myanmar combines an Indian-influenced sarong with a
Chinese-style coat — fitting, perhaps, for a nation trying to
balance ties with two giant neighbours as it looks outwards and
relaxes decades of tightly buttoned rule.Wedged between India to its west and China to its east,
Myanmar will need to work hard on that balancing act as its
military-backed government heads down the path of political
reform to end the nation’s pariah status and revive its economy.Throttled by Western sanctions, Myanmar has long relied on
Beijing to keep it afloat with weapons, loans and infrastructure
projects. But it is now courting India, too, to reduce its
dependence on China, which many in the country see as a
semi-colonial power.Myanmar is hoping competition between the two Asian rivals
will earn it a better deal for resources such as gas and access
to the Indian Ocean from its shores, for which China has so far
paid bottom-dollar.”There is an awareness they have a lot in common with two
great nations, China and India, and they must learn to cooperate
with both to derive the maximum benefit for themselves,” said
Lalit Mansingh, who was India’s foreign secretary when relations
with Myanmar began to warm in the late 1990s.Broadly speaking, that seems to be the plan.Two weeks ago, Thein Sein, a retired general who in February
became Myanmar’s first nominally civilian president in nearly 50
years, shocked Beijing by shelving a $3.6 billion dam project
that would have supplied almost no domestic electricity and had
come to epitomise the army’s habit of kowtowing to China.This week he visited India, the world’s largest democracy,
for a state visit that began with a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, the
spot where the Buddha is said to have found enlightenment after
meditating under a tree for three days and three nights.OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIA”When Myanmar’s government suspended the dam and went to
India, it showed that it should not be underestimated,” said
Christopher Roberts, an Asia expert at Australia’s National
Security College. “It knows it has resources that many countries
want and it is using this to full advantage.”Myanmar’s new assertiveness towards Beijing and desire to
return to the fold of nations give India a rare chance to steal
a march on China in the regional jostle for maritime power and
energy supplies.But red tape-bound India’s slow decision making and
bureaucratic tangles mean it may fail to seize the moment.The $110 million Sittwe port and transport hub it is
building on Myanmar’s west coast is unfinished. Meanwhile, China
plans to build a much larger deep-water port just a few miles
away.”Our ability to execute projects on time needs
improvements,” said a well-informed official in the Indian
government who declined to be named, noting China’s better
record on delivering promised projects.”It is the challenge, we lose out. We have a different
political system, they have deep pockets,” said the official.Also known as Burma, Myanmar’s links with India stretch back
for centuries, and both countries became independent from the
British empire within a year of each other after World War Two.
As Myanmar retreated into authoritarianism, however, it was
rejected by its democratic neighbour and moved closer to China.”When India withdrew it caused a vacuum in Myanmar: others
stepped in, especially China,” said Mansingh.India realised in the 1990s that Chinese investment in
Myanmar’s military and infrastructure was giving Beijing a
strategic advantage in the Southeast Asian nation, which
straddles busy Bay of Bengal shipping lanes and has large energy
reserves.So India put its concerns about human rights abuses there to
one side. Once an ardent supporter of the democracy icon and
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who went to school and
university in India, New Delhi quietly dropped its backing for
her opposition party and began to court Myanmar’s junta.Hungry for energy supplies to fuel one of the world’s
fastest-growing major economies and wary of China’s military and
maritime expansion, India has for several years sold Myanmar
military equipment and promised it roads and railways.Until now, Myanmar’s response has been lukewarm. While it
has clamped down on separatist militants seeking refuge from
India’s restive northeast, it has so far refused to send any
natural gas.India has a 30 percent stake in two gas blocks in the
offshore Shwe fields, but in 2007 Myanmar chose to sell the gas
produced there to China via two huge pipelines.STRING OF PEARLSMyanmar is vital for China’s strategy of finding short cuts
to pull energy into its populous south. Both countries will
continue to work together, but maybe on a more balanced footing.India worries China’s “string of pearls” projects to build
ports in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan could lead
to its naval encirclement across the Indian Ocean and up to the
Arabian Sea. Reports of listening stations on Myanmar’s western
coast and islands add to these fears.Sein arrived in India hours after releasing about 200
political prisoners on Wednesday, part of a strategy aimed at
ending Myanmar’s status as an outcast and the sanctions imposed
on it by the United States and Europe.The retired general met officials on Friday in New Delhi,
which opposes sanctions while being a major ally of Myanmar’s
fiercest critic, Washington.”I think they will find India very helpful in projecting
their national interest to the rest of the world,” said
Mansingh.For its part, India is looking for a stake in any opening-up
of Myanmar’s gas fields and vast tracts of farmland.”Energy cooperation is quite extensive and is expected to
increase,” Harsh Vardhan Shringla, joint secretary at the
foreign ministry, said in a briefing. “The Myanmar government
has put out tenders for additional onshore blocks for which
Indian companies are also interested.”India may quietly take some of the credit for drawing
Myanmar in from the cold. It says its policy of engagement and
democracy promotion behind closed doors is more effective than
Western governments’ public admonishments.”The last thing you want to do is wag your finger at a
country publicly,” said the government official. “Try doing that
with your children, let alone a fellow nation.”($1 = 49.125 Indian Rupees)
