Myanmar: India rejects China rivalry, Sittwe port by 2013
A day before holding talks with Myanmar, India Thursday rejected competition with China and opposed sanctions targeting Yangon. New Delhi also set 2013 deadline for completing Sittwe port, a landmark project that will act as a trade gateway for India's northeastern states to southeast Asia.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold wide-ranging talks with Myanmar President U Thein Sein Friday that are expected to expand economic, energy and security cooperation between the two countries.
Thein Sein began his four-day visit to India from Bodh Gaya Wednesday and visited neighbouring Buddhist pilgrimage destinations, including Kushinagar, before touching down in Delhi in the evening.
Signalling Yangon's keenness to expand ties with India across the spectrum, 13 senior ministers handling key portfolios are accompanying Thein Sein to India. Several pacts in areas related to economy and infrastructure development are expected to be signed after the talks.
Ways to expand security cooperation, specially in the context of insurgents of India's northeastern states suspected to be sheltering in the Myanmarese territory, will figure in the discussions.
"We have received assurances that the Myanmarese territory will not be allowed for insurgent activities directed against India," Vishnu Prakash, the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, told reporters here. Seeking to add greater economic heft to bilateral ties, India said it was confident of making the $120-million Sittwe deep water port functional by June 2013 and described Myanmar as "an important partner in India's quest for energy security."
The port will allow cargo vessels from India’s landlocked Mizoram state to navigate the Kaladan River and connect them to Myanmar and Southeast Asia. “We expect the highway to be completed by 2014,” Harshvardhan Shringla, joint secretary in charge of Myanmar in the external affairs ministry, told reporters while referring to the multi-modal Kaladan project.
The two countries have set a target of nearly doubling their bilateral trade to $3 billion by 2015. Leading energy companies like ONGC Videsh, GAIL and the Eassar group plan to up their stakes in the oil and gas sector in Myanmar.
Ahead of the talks, New Delhi rejected competition with Beijing amid Yangon's fraying ties with Beijing over a mammoth dam. "The relations between nations is not a zero sum game. There is room for everyone," Prakash said here when asked whether India was seeking to counter China's growing influence in the southeast Asian country.
"We have an important relationship with Myanmar. And we have an important relationship with China. There is no competition," said Prakash.
Prakash also underlined New Delhi's opposition to sanctions that have been slapped by some Western countries against Myanmar on account of its perceived human rights violations.
"We have a distaste for sanctions. They do not serve the desired purpose and affect the people who are vulnerable," said Prakash when asked whether New Delhi will use its leverage with Western countries to lift sanctions in the wake of reforms undertaken by the civilian government.
Taking note of significant economic and political reforms, including launching dialogue with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, initiated by the civilian regime, New Delhi also underlined the need for broadbased and inclusive political process in that country.
India has also offered to share parliamentary practices with Myanmar. Significantly, Myanmar's minister for border affairs is also part of the president's delegation. The upgradation of border trade infrastructure will also figure in the discussions.
The two sides will aslo explore greater cooperation in agriculture with India planning to set up an advanced agricultural research centre in Myanmar. Thein Sein will visit the Indian Agriculture Research Institute Saturday morning before heading back to Yangon. Thein Shein, a former general in Myanmar's Army, touched down on a day when the government in Yangon released several political prisoners as part of a general amnesty, bolstering the new regime's reformist credentials.
