More Than Just a Port
Photo: Tyler Chapman
One of the earthmovers creating a jetty as part of the new India-financed port at Sittwe in western Burma in Oct. 2011.
No pictures, no pictures, a young man in a hardhat says.
Yet what is happening here is no secret. This is the beginning of a U.S. $136 million project, financed by India, to provide Burma with a new port and two jetties close to its western border with Bangladesh. The project is scheduled for completion in 2013.
Chain-link fences surround the site. Red signs at the two gates identify the contractor as Essar Projects (India) Ltd. Essar calls itself Indias leading engineering, procurement and construction company.
This is more than just a port for Burma, however. It gives India a foothold in Burma and a counterbalance to Chinas planned natural gas and oil pipelines from Sittwe across Burma to its own Yunnan province.
A sign announces India's Essar Projects as the contractor building a port and two jetties at Sittwe, in western Burma in Oct, 2011. Photo: Tyler Chapman
India has a long way to go to catch up with the inroads China made in Burma by embracing the former military dictatorship. But now that a nominally civilian government is in place in Burma, India is about to play a more important role in the Southeast Asian nations development.
China has exploited the isolation (of Burma) to such an extent they (the Burmese government) are now keen for a rapprochement with India or others out of a desire to diversify their foreign relations, said Shyam Saran, Indias former ambassador to Burma.
Two weeks after the new Burmese pr! esident, Thein Sein, rebuffed China by suspending work on its $3.6 billion Myitsone dam on the upper Irrawaddy River, he headed to a summit meeting in New Delhi with the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
Thein Sein agreed to assign India a piece of Burmas huge gas fields off Sittwe, where China is already the dominant player. The Indian prime minister responded with a U.S. $500 million credit to Burma, some of it earmarked to speed up work on the Sittwe port project.
The Essar website says this project is of national importance to India because it includes an inland water passage and highway that will link Sittwe to the landlocked northeast Indian state of Mizoram to the north.
The Indian plan is to ship goods from Calcutta to Sittwe for transshipment through Myanmar to Mizoram. It is a shorter and less expensive route than to ship goods by road through India.
Officially, the Indian government says theres no animosity toward China in Indias courtship of Burma.
We have an important relationship with Myanmar (Burma), said Indias external affairs ministry spokesman, Vishnu Prakash. And we have an important relationship with China. There is no competition.
But commentators see Burmas new interest in India as a declaration of independence from China.
Chinas privileged place in the hierarchy of Burmas foreign relationscan no longer be taken for granted, wrote Ian Storey of the Jamestown foundation. A Washington, DC, think tank.
Tyler Chapman is a regular contributor to the RFA.
Comments