This refers to Premvir Das’ article “The Chinese are coming?” (February 15). The news of China’s renewed interest in the development of Gwadar port in Pakistan has recently emerged. India has already missed the chance of involving itself in the development of Hambantota port in Sri Lanka to China. A few days ago, a newspaper report said Myanmar was actively planning to build a mini-Singapore near Kyaukpyu, a small town 25 km off the island of Ramree on its west coast. This will give Myanmar an effective link to the Indian Ocean and southeast Asia. It is only 100 km off the oil and gas fields in the Bay of Bengal. China has already poured several billions of dollars into various projects in Myanmar and is well set to grab this project, too. It has almost achieved an effective link through Myanmar to Kunming in southwest China through highways and railways. As far as India is concerned, our ministers’ pronouncements on the Look East Policy has not yielded any substantial information. Last year, there were reports in the media of our government building a rail link from a southern Iran port to its northern border with Afghanistan. Beyond this stray report, very little is known about this project. People are entitled to know the bare details of all infrastructure projects that India is taking up to counterbalance these Chinese measures. In these circumstances, our members of Parliament or the committees concerned with foreign affairs and defence are responsible for raising these issues in the forthcoming session of Parliament, and seeking effective answers from the government.
S Subramanyan Navi Mumbai
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