INFOCUS | LOOK EAST | REPORT
2
Kolkata Kunming The time is right for some constructive action and not just annual summits. Shastri Ramachandaran
T
he Forum of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) reaffirmed its resolve to unflaggingly pursue enhanced cooperation with particular focus on regional connectivity. The resolve was evident in presentations made at the Forum’s 9th meeting in Kunming from January 17-19. The two-day meeting was marked
by a realistic assessment of the progress achieved so far in regional economic cooperation and a forthright setting out of objectives for both the near future and the long term. In their joint statement released at the conclusion of the Forum’s proceedings, leaders of the four delegations resolved to focus on improved regional connectivity and hasten the establishment of the Kunming-Mandalay-Dhaka-Kolkata economic corridor. The Forum declared support for
the setting up of a business council, comprising representatives of the four countries, which would hold periodic exchanges and meetings for intensified cross-border trade and business. At the Kunming session, the Forum of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar on Regional Economic Cooperation was renamed as “Bangladesh China India and Myanmar Regional Cooperation Forum.” The change of nomenclature, however, is not such as to make it more catchy or enable easier
recall – it remains long-winded and is yet to assume an abbreviated form that resonates like SAARC or ASEAN. Such a branding exercise is important for the Forum to acquire more visibility and greater currency in the four countries, as the label is important for the vehicle to be attractive. Apart from this minor word-play failing to click, at its 9th round, the BCIM Forum – launched in 1999 as the Kunming Initiative – agreed to work on a multi-track process. In fact, the theme of the 9th Forum was Multi-track Approach, given the indispensability of Track I (involving governments) for coordination and the importance of Track II consisting of civil society institutions, the private sector and NGOs. Yunnan Province Governor Qin Guangrong in his welcome address reviewed the record of progress so far highlighting some of the remarkable achievements. He pointed to the enhanced trade and commercial
cooperation, cultural exchanges, series of documents and memoranda signed by the four parties, the setting up of a coordinating office in Kunming in 2005, the Kolkata2Kunming mechanism, increasing interactions between the four governments, scholars, enterprises, and more people-to-people processes as notable outcomes. Trade among the four parties has grown rapidly – at an annual rate of 25 per cent, which is 3.5 times of what it was five years ago. Looking ahead, Mr Qin said that strategic opportunity was being ushered in for cooperation and development. On January 1, 2010, the first phase of China-ASEAN FTA and India-ASEAN FTA Goods Agreement came into effect. China has adopted a new round of West Development strategy, which intensifies the opening up of border areas in Yunnan. Yunnan is to be developed as a gateway to the Southwest to enable more effective cooperation with Southeast Asia and South Asia.
He advanced four suggestions for deepening and upgrading the cooperation. Of these the most important is for facilitating transport connectivity. He sought a consensus on a land route linking Yunnan with Myanmar towards Bangladesh and India that would make Yunnan a passageway linking China with Southeast Asia and South Asia. The Indian delegation endorsed the expectation that “we can move forward to establish the Kunming-MandalayDhaka-Kolkata Corridor as a concrete demonstration of improved connectivity and vibrant expression of regional cooperation in many planes.” The head of the Indian delegation, Ambassador Eric Gonsalves was confident that the 9th Forum would mark a new beginning in the level and speed of cooperation across the BCIM region. He recalled that the last two rounds had focused on the relevant areas of cooperation, the difficulties faced and the need to prepare projects with detailed plans for implementation.
“We should now seek to maximize the joint utilization of resources and expertise from within the region to optimize the final outcome,” Mr Gonsalves said. All four participants, he said, have demonstrated their desire to undertake development programmes more effectively. The Forum deliberations, he said, have made it clear that connectivity is a fundamental need. He pointed out that connectivity has more than one dimension. “It is also necessary to augment air linkages, port and inland water transport and telecommunication capacities, too, if the expectations for trade tourism and people to people exchanges are to grow as everyone desires”. The next meeting is to be held in India in 2012. In their opening statements, the heads of the Indian and Chinese delegation presented a concise and matter-of-fact summary of the situation so far, the expectations raised by BCIM, the projects under way and what lies ahead. They also recognized the gaps that remain to be addressed by the Forum and the four participating countries. Implied in Forum’s expressed desire to take up projects and programmes is also an admission of what has not been accomplished on schedule; and, of themes and activities that are yet to find a place in the BCIM scheme to make regional cooperation more visible and felt with a view to engaging larger and diverse sections of people in the respective countries. One such proposal is the Car Rally,
Yunnan is to be developed as a gateway to the Southwest to enable more effective cooperation with Southeast Asia and South Asia which has been looked forward to since it was first announced in 2006 to be held in November 2007, but has been put off since then. At the recent meeting, it was again taken up; and, once again, everyone hoped that arrangements could be finalized for holding the cross-national Car Rally to coincide with the next meeting of the BCIM in India. The overland Car Rally, it is felt, would attract great attention, especially among the younger generation. Besides, it could spur other ‘sporty’ activities, such as a cruise and/or bicycle rally to emphasise the cooperative and collaborative spirit of the Forum. Although India was well represented with Professors KC Sivaramakrishnan, Mahendra P Lama, Binoda Kumar Mishra, Nimmi Kurian and Sanjoy Hazarika, and Indian Consul-General in Guangzhou Mr Indra Mani Pandey included in the delegation headed by Mr Gonsalves, a notable absentee was Ms Patricia Uberoi. She was unable to attend the 9th meeting despite being involved in the preparations for it.
|42| India-China Chronicle January-February 2011
Prof Uberoi, who is Honorary Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies in Delhi (one of the four focal points of the BCIM process), has drawn attention, on more than one occasion, to the need for inclusion of specific themes for intensified cooperation among BCIM countries. Her presentations on issues relating to scientific, educational, cultural, academic and social exchanges have highlighted inter-related themes to be taken up for enhanced visibility of the BCIM as a regional initiative. She has been emphasizing the need for enhanced cooperation beyond the purely economic realm, especially in fields connected with human and social development. From student and youth exchanges to academic seminars, joint research initiatives and publications, she has identified various activities that call for an early and productive start. It is high time that some of these suggestions are taken up and fleshed out with constructive inputs so that regional cooperation is manifest in small and different ways right through the year in the form of various events and not only as summitry once in 12 months.
Shastri Ramachandaran writes and broadcasts on national and foreign affairs. He’s worked as a journalist in leading newspapers in India and China.
INFOCUS | KUNMING | REPORT
THE ASIAN HIGHWAY
Still well but not kicking yet
|12| India-China Chronicle February-March 2011
All is not well with the Stilwell Road that once linked India with China. But given the Chinese enthusiasm, and if matched by the Indians, the road could once again, well, recreate its romance.
Sunita Dwivedi
H
aving travelled extensively on the great highways linking China and the Indian neighbourhood, highways that were once the great silk routes, I am gladdened by the rebirth of the Stilwell Road. For me it is another highway, another destination. New areas will become accessible to all Silk Road travellers like me on the Ledo-Kunming highway. More interesting is the fact that if we
link this historic Stilwell Road with the 4th century BC Mauryan Road, also called the Uttarapath or the Northern High Road [the Grand Trunk Road of present times] that linked Sonargaon [now in Bangladesh’s Narayanganj district] through Chandraketugarh [Kolkata] with Kabul, we have the heady mix of the Kunming–Kabul Link. Several years ago, it was by chance that while browsing through some old books at Daryaganj I happened to lay hands on Rehman Sobhan’s Rediscovering The Southern Silk Route. Yunnan was the pivot of this Southern Silk Route as it traded in salt, tea and horses. Even during the times of the great Venetian traveller Marco Polo (AD thirteenth century) Yunnan was in direct contact with India: “In this province (Yunnan) also are bred large and excellent horses which are taken to India for sale,” says Marco. (Henry Yule, Henri Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo Vol. II, Chap. XLIX p.76) It is said that for centuries Yunnan and Assam and Bengal forged a link for trade and cultural interaction between China and India. This was probably because the three provinces shared an all weather route and were separated by a short distance of only a few days. Whereas it took months to travel [and with great risk through the difficult Himalayan ranges] from India to other provinces of China viz. Xinjiang and Sichuan through Tibet. Because of the proximity of Assam, Bengal and Yunnan, trade ties between India and China are said to have developed as early as 2000 years ago when the Southern Silk Road from Yunnan carried the maximum trade with the North-Eastern and Eastern provinces of India. Even during the time of the Mauryan emperor Asoka [around BC 3rd century] people were travelling to Yunnan and Talifu [Dali] was a known place on the itinerary of the Indian traveller. Asoka himself is said to have travelled to Talifu and married the princess of the ruling dynasty. [see Rediscovering the Southern Silk Route; Sobhan Rehman; p2,3] Sobhan Rehman’s book focused on an integrated transport infrastructure India-China Chronicle |13|
INFOCUS | KUNMING | REPORT
linked by the Silk Routes through South Asia to form the Great Asian Highway for uninterrupted travel between Asia and Europe. The Asian Highway envisaged would start from Kunming in the Yunnan province of China, pass through Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and onwards would be linked with the networks in West and Central Asia and that of Europe. With China now set to build the Stilwell Road which crosses Myanmar to directly link India with China the prospect of the Great Asian Highway has become a reality. Interestingly, the Southern Silk Road has also been identified as a ‘possible route for the Asian Highway’, under the Asian Land Transport and Infrastructure Development (ALTID) project. The highway project, initiated in 1959, by U. Nyun, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Asia and Far East was ‘designed to provide uninterrupted travel from Asia to Europe’ through India. The Kunming–Kolkata road is said to follow the path of the ancient Southern route through Myanmar and Pragjyotisha (present Assam) to Chandraketugarh (thirty-five kilometres north-east of present Kolkata) Existing up to recent times the head of this 1700 km long Southern Silk Road lay at Kunming in the Yunnan province of Southwest China leading through Myanmar to Ledo in the Indian province of Assam. Called the Ledo-Burma Road (also named the Stilwell Road after General Joseph Warren Stilwell) it passed through Lekhapani, Jairampur, Nampong and Pangsau pass on the India-Burma border, winding up the passes of Patkai Range and running up to Mytkyina and Bhamo and onwards to Kunming. Another overland route from Kunming via Ruili, Mandalay, Imphal passed through the towns of Moreh and Tamu on the Indo-Myanmar border along the present National Highway-39. It could run up to Sonargaon (in Narayanganj district of Bangladesh, twenty-seven kilometres south-east from present day Dakha in Bangladesh) to join the eastern arm of the Uttarapath (later the Grand Trunk Road) or take the route to Chittagong, the traditional port on
the Bay of Bengal. It is learnt that till 1950 India and China had their trade agents in each other’s country. The practice can be revived for trade and tourism through the border posts which will become money earners as lakhs of Indians and Chinese small traders will then go into each other’s regions to sell their wares and make purchases. The all weather routes between the Indo-Chinese border districts were the branch routes of the ancient Silk Road through which the people have been travelling for trade and pilgrimage. Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan- the border provincesofChinawerealwaysincontact
Because of the proximity of Assam, Bengal and Yunnan, trade ties between India and China are said to have developed as early as 2000 years ago when the Southern Silk Road from Yunnan carried the maximum trade with the NorthEastern and Eastern provinces of India. with Indian border provinces in the North, East and West. It is recorded that till 1950 a Tibetan Trade Agent was posted at Sadiya, a town in Assam on the north banks of the Lohit river. Similarly an Indian agent was posted at Rimo in Tibet. The distance between Sadiya to Tibet is barely 80 km as the crow flies–the shortest distance to Tibet anywhere on the Indo-Tibet border. According to Romesh Bhattacharji [Lands of Early Dawn, p20] a road existed between Tezu and Walong, very well maintained and tarred . This led up to Kibithoo and Kahao; from
|14| India-China Chronicle February-March 2011
here to Rimo was a distance of only 30 km. This area is absolutely beautiful and well connected and can become an all weather route between China and India. The Highway Builder During the course of my adventurous travels In Quest of the Buddha on the Chinese Silk Road I became more and more aware that the Chinese had mastered the art of road making. Whether it was in the deserts of the Gobi, the Taklamakan, the high mountains of the Pamirs or in the valley of the Lhasa, Brahmaputra or the
Yangtse rivers, on the glacial heights of the Tibetan plateau, the Chinese had done an excellent job. These were not simply roads but multi-lane express highways. Sometime ago there were few roads in China. Through the gorgeous mountains and vast plateau plains, through the deserts and the river valleys, caravans chugged along dangerously. Today massive road network of tens of thousands of kilometres have been put up. It includes international highways like the China-Pakistan Karakoram Highway [KKH], China Nepal
Friendship Highway, the Intercontinental Bridge [linking China with Europe], National highways like the A312 and A314 through Xinjiang, Qinghai-Tibet Highway, the TibetSichuan Highway, the Yunnan-Tibet Highway and the Xinjiang –Tibet Highway. I had the fortune of travelling on several of the above highways during the course of my Silk Road project in China. The highways approximate to the strands of the ancient Silk Routes that crisscrossed China, joined the trade routes through India and sped across to Central Asia and Iran on way
Multi-lane highway from Kunming running towards Ruili
to the Mediterranean. The Karakoram starts from the Renmin Xi Lu in Kashgar and leads south for over 2000 km over the Khunjerab Pass into Pakistan tracing the ancient trade route to Taxila in Pakistan. In ancient times this route at Taxila met the Uttarapath or the Northern Highroad coming from Vaishali. For thousands of years traders and pilgrims have travelled on this mountainous route branching into China, Pakistan,
February-March 2011 India-China Chronicle |15|
INFOCUS | KUNMING | REPORT
India, Afghanistan and Tajikistan connecting China, South Asia and Central Asia. China and Pakistan jointly cut this Asian highroad across the Pamirs and the Karakoram Range during the 1960’s connecting Kashgar with Rawalpindi and Islamabad via the Khunjerab Pass through Gilgit. One can travel anywhere in Tibet through the wide network of national highways connecting every major town and almost every village. Even in the remotest destinations one can find internet cafes. I had the opportunity of travelling on the Tibet-Sichuan Highway 318 where power cables run all along the mighty mountains. Not even for a second does the mobile phone service go off on the mighty highway that passes through some of the most difficult terrains of Tibet and Sichuan provinces. The highway continues to run for over 2000 km through Chamdo, Dege and Tachien-lu [Darchendo] before joining Chengdu. It goes up to Shanghai through Wuhan covering a journey of 5000 km from Lhasa. From Shanghai the national highway goes up to Beijing connecting it with Lhasa. It is said to be one of the greatest Asiatic trade routes like the Grand Trunk Road of India. The most elevated miraculous Qinghai-Tibet 4000 km railroad from Beijing to Lhasa covering hundreds of kilometers of permanently frozen ground was launched in 2006 bringing the Chinese railways within barely 600 km of the Indian Railways in Darjeeling. At the Tanggula Pass at 5072 metres above sea level the train passes the highest point in the world’s railway. Other famous highways built by China are the famous 1000km China-Nepal Friendship Highway connecting Kathmandu through Zhangmu to Lhasa. Trade and Tourism Since ancient times there has been a continuous movement of people and trade, religion and culture between China and India through the branches of the Great Silk Road. Even the great barriers of the Himalayas have not been able to restrict and restrain this exchange nor block the strands. The
people of both countries have crossed mountains and rivers along their borders to forge a unique bond of friendship. If we take into account the vast amount of literature by travellers, historians, geographers, linguists dealing with the story of the Silk Road, we learn that India and China were exchanging travellers on a gigantic scale since ancient times. The Silk Road and its other trading branches viz. the Spice Road, Jade Road, Tea Road, Salt Road, Musk and the Horse Road – all formed a web that inter-weaved travellers from India and China. The roads were named after the commodities that were
I had the opportunity of travelling on the TibetSichuan Highway 318 where power cables run all along the mighty mountains. Not even for a second does the mobile phone service go off on the mighty highway that passes through some of the most difficult terrains of Tibet and Sichuan provinces. transported. For this reason it is said that the first really large scale exchange of travellers in recorded history was between India and China. The bond was so unique and fabulous that scholars studying Chinese art styles and history found a close connection with India. With the building of the Stilwell Road through Myanmar ancient townships and bazaars, ancient transports can be brought to life again. All this will not only rekindle trade and commerce but also the excitement and romance of the ancient world. The splendid forecast by the World Tourism Organisation that by 2020,
|16| India-China Chronicle February-March 2011
China will account for an out-bound volume of 100 million travelers, the largest in the world and India’s could be 50 million has brought great hopes for both countries. The Tourism sector is a powerful economic market and India and China can make the most of it by joining hands on this Stilwell Road to draw up alluring projects. It is here that the heritage of the Silk Road and the beautiful Buddhist sites in both countries may become prized locations. Two Pivotal Points From Kunming roads lead to Myanmar and link India at two pivotal points – One in Assam at Ledo and another in Manipur at Moreh. If the Moreh-Kunming route becomes functional it would bring prosperity for the deprived people of the region. Another all weather road is the above mentioned Ledo Road. The National Highway 38 branches off to Margherita and Ledo which were trading centres for tea, oil and coal. The road leads towards Pangsau Pass in Myanmar and onwards to Kunming in Yunnan. Ledo was the beginning of the World War II road – the Stilwell Road and a supply route. This road will now be rebuilt and upgraded and the whole area of Margherita and Ledo will become a tourist hub for not only India, China and Myanmar, but also for the world. It will also help to improve the economy of the towns that lie close to the road and in India’s North-east. Of the 1700 km of the road 61 km is in India, 1000 in Myanmar and about 600 in Yunnan. In China it is a six-lane expressway. It is said that the opening of this road will cut the distance between India and China by 5000 km and transport will take a mere two days to reach from Kolkata to Kunming and vice-versa.
Sunita Dwivedi is author of In Quest of the Buddha- A journey on the Silk Road