NEW DELHI: India’s northeast can become a regional connectivity hub with the completion of a highway that will link the region to Myanmar and Thailand and on to the Pacific Ocean, external affairs minister S Jaishankar told a Bimstec meeting on Thursday.
Jaishankar’s remarks appeared to be a riposte to Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus’ effort to leverage the geographical isolation of the seven northeastern states while seeking Chinese investments for his country.
Addressing a meeting of foreign ministers of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) in Bangkok, Jaishankar emphasised the central role of India, especially its northeast, in forging transport and connectivity linkages. India, he said, is “aware of its special responsibility” in the context of Bimstec, having the longest coastline of 6,500 km in the Bay of Bengal and sharing borders with five members of the bloc.
“Our northeastern region in particular is emerging as a connectivity hub for the Bimstec, with a myriad network of roads, railways, waterways, grids and pipelines,” he said.
“Furthermore, the completion of the Trilateral Highway will connect India’s northeast all the way to the Pacific Ocean, a veritable game-changer. We are conscious that our cooperation and facilitation are an essential pre-requisite for the smooth flow of goods, services and people in this larger geography.”
With this geo-strategic factor in mind, India has devoted increased attention to strengthening Bimstec in the last decade. “We also believe that cooperation is an integrated outlook, not one subject to cherry-picking,” he said.
The Trilateral Highway was initially conceived as a link between India, Myanmar and Thailand. India later proposed extending it to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. However, the fighting in Myanmar has affected work on the project.
During a recent visit to China, Yunus focused on India’s northeast, which shares a nearly 1,600-km border with Bangladesh, while making a pitch for Chinese investments. “Seven states of India… called seven sisters, they are a landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean. We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region,” he said.
“This opens up a huge possibility, this could be an extension of the Chinese economy,” Yunus said.
Yunus’ remarks were denounced by political leaders in the northeast at a time when India-Bangladesh relations are at a fresh low.
Jaishankar also said Bimstec should adopt a more ambitious approach at a time of global churn that is creating a new order which is more regional and agenda-specific.
He addressed the meeting, part of preparations for the Bimstec Summit on Friday, hours after US President Donald Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariffs, triggering concerns about spiralling trade wars. Five members of the grouping were hit by Trump’s “discounted reciprocal tariffs” – Sri Lanka and Myanmar (both 44%), Bangladesh (37%), Thailand (36%) and India (26%).
Without referring to the US tariffs, Jaishankar said the ministers were meeting in “very uncertain and volatile times”, when the global order is in churn. “This should encourage us to approach Bimstec from a more ambitious perspective. The new order, whose outlines have only now started to become visible, is intrinsically more regional and agenda-specific,” he said.
“The era when a few powers underwrote the international system is now behind us. What we make of our prospects is very much dependent on ourselves. As developing nations who face a multitude of challenges, that is better done in concert with each other than individually.”
Jaishankar pointed out that Bimstec members are performing below their potential in terms of trade, investment, connectivity or services between themselves. India not only connects most Bimstec members but also “provides much of the interface between the Indian subcontinent and Asean”, he said.
Jaishankar said that for India, Bimstec represents the trifecta of the “Act East” and “Neighbourhood First” policies and the MAHASAGAR or “Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions” outlook. “It is also on the pathway to our Indo-Pacific commitment. In order to promote Bimstec, what India is doing is to draw the best from all of them and then synergise that with our collective efforts,” he said.
Jaishankar suggested Bimstec members should deepen collaboration by focusing on the most visible convergence, such as grid connections, digital infrastructure, maritime and land transport, blue economy, and health, food and energy security.
At the same time, the grouping should address issues such as cyber security, counter-terrorism, human trafficking, illegal narcotics trade and associated activities. “We need to create the necessary frameworks to deal with them effectively,” he said.
The bloc must focus on larger challenges such as climate change, pandemics, natural disasters, financial crises and the ripple impacts of far-away conflicts, as well as the dangers of extremism, radicalisation and terrorism.
“The reality is that the world is moving to an era of self-help. Every region needs to look out for itself, whether it is in food, fuel and fertiliser supply, vaccines or speedy disaster response,” he said.
Since India stymied the activities of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) by pulling out of a summit to be hosted by Pakistan in 2016, it has focused on Bimstec – which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand – as a platform for driving regional cooperation. A maritime cooperation agreement is expected to be signed during the Bimstec Summit in Bangkok on April 4.