A sea route to northeast in the making
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India, Burma Sign Multimillion-dollar Transport Project Deal
April 3, 2008: (Irrawaddy) India has agreed to build a multimillion-dollar seaport and transportation system in Burma as it presses ahead with investment in its much-criticized neighbor.
The second-highest ranking member of Burma's ruling junta, Vice Sir-Gen Mauna Aye, signed the deal on Wednesday with Indian Vice president Mohammad Humid a sari during his official visit to India, according to a statement from India's Foreign Ministry.
India has been investing in Burma despite international calls for sanctions on the Southeast Asian country's military government, which violently suppressed pro-democracy protests in 2007.
The ministry statement gave no details of the deal. Indian officials earlier said the US $120 million project would see India upgrade waterways and highways along Burma's Kalian River and develop the port of Pittway in the country's northwest.
"This project will greatly enhance connectivity between Myanmar [Burma] and India, in particular with India's northeast states," the statement said.
India has established deep economic and military ties with Burma's ruling junta over the past decade and has said it believes talking quietly is a better approach than sanctions.
The agreement was signed the same day as detained Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party urged voters to reject a military-backed draft constitution, saying it was undemocratic and drafted under the junta's direct control.
The draft will be up for a referendum vote next month. The junta has also announced general elections in 2010.
The Indian ministry's statement quoted Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh as saying Burma needs to speed up its promised democratization process.
India shifted its policy from supporting Suu Kyi to engaging the junta's generals in the early 1990s, partly due to a desire for access to Burma's large natural gas reserves.
The upgraded transportation system will give India greater access to the reserves, which it needs to fuel its rapid economic growth.
India has also recently sought to bolster its influence in Burma in an attempt to counter China, which has become the junta's main ally.
In addition, India has been eager to secure the cooperation of the Burmese military to help contain separatist groups fighting New Delhi's rule in northeastern India near the Burma border. Several of the groups have set up bases across the 1,331-kilometer (830 mile) border and used them to launch attacks in India.