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| India-Pakistan |
| On The Road To Bangkok |
| 2003-12-23 |
| EFL: Even as the proposal on the construction of the world’s one of the largest rail network connecting New Delhi to place as far as Hanoi in Vietnam is beginning to determine India’s emerging role in the political and economic progress in South-East Asia, New Delhi has added another dimension to its ’look-east’ policy by offering support to a mega-construction project of an international highway connecting Delhi to Bangkok. Be one hell of a road trip. And if the visit of Myanmar’s Foreign Minister U Win Aung to New Delhi for a meeting with his Indian counterpart Yashwant Sinha here today is any indication then all this and much more would be reality within no time. New Delhi, which has been aiming for long to achieve economic supremacy in the South-East Asian region, has reasons to back the proposal as it would not only mean realistic commerce, but also India’s political pre-eminence in the subcontinent. Becoming a major power in the region, and very few people in the west have noticed. New Delhi is keen on reopening India’s ancient trade route to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam that would not only help in the larger integration of the Asian region, but if India’s foreign policy observers are to be believed then it would also bring in mutual trade and commerce benefits bringing closer the rapidly changing South-East Asian economies to India that already is hitting headlines for its growing political and economic initiatives. Not to mention military. Look at the map and you’ll see why India wants that aircraft carrier. The federal government, led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who recently attended the Asean summit, has strongly favoured such initiatives as part of the government’s "look east" policy. "It is widely believed that with Saarc (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) and the Asean beginning to move closer, the Bangkok-Delhi highway and the rail link would change the way people look towards the Asian subcontinent," sources in the government said. I think we know how the Chinese will look at it, they think it’s supposed to be their playground. "If there is a slow but sure economic integration of Asia on the lines of European Union, it would mean a completely new world order," says an official at the Prime Minister’s Office. We’ll be watching. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 gotta watch that bridge over the River Kwai, though |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-12-23 3:06:42 PM |