What is Myanmar doing in China’s advance into the Indo-Pacific
Giuseppe Gagliano's analysis
The centrality of both the United States and China of the Indo-Pacific has been stressed several times on these pages .
Now, the fact that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is going to India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives must be read with a view to containing the Chinese power projection. Similarly, the use of the US Coast Guard in the Indo-Pacific – as indicated on October 23 by National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien – is aimed at countering China's "destabilizing and harmful" activities in the region.
A similar choice was made by India with regard to China with regard to the former Burma, now Myanmar. Why has India decided to conclude a contract with Myanmar – formerly Burma – for the delivery of a submarine? It is not difficult to understand the reasons of a purely geopolitical nature that led India to act in this direction: for some time now a silent conflict has been taking place between China and the USA for the hegemony of the Indo-Pacific. Well, India's purpose is precisely to bring Myanmar into its own political orbit in order to contain China. In fact, the stoned guest of this agreement is China, which has fully understood the significant strategic position occupied by Myanmar.
In fact, Myanmar occupies a position of extreme importance from a geographical point of view to realize the New Chinese Silk Road. The fact that the Chinese president last January went to the Myanmar capital , Naypyidaw, to meet the state councilor, president and commander of the armed forces with the aim of signing 33 agreements relating to port infrastructure, is only the logical consequence of Myanmar's relevance for China.
In fact, one of these agreements provides for the construction of a road and railway infrastructure that will start from the Chinese province of Yunnan to reach the port of Kyaukpyu which is located in a crucial strategic and commercial hub, namely the Bay of Bengal. It is no coincidence that the China Communications Constructions Company intends to set up an EEZ in the Gulf area in order to develop economic activities managed directly by China.
The second reason relating to the centrality of this small nation depends on the fact that in the event that there are strong tensions on the Strait of Malacca – which could be blocked through a real embargo on the American side or even on the Indian side – the Bay of Bengal overlooking the Indian Ocean would be an important alternative route.
And, among other things, it is interesting to underline precisely from a geopolitical point of view how this choice made by China is a mirror image of that relating to the port of Gwadar .
However, the geopolitical posture of Myanmar is one of prudence and caution as evidenced by the fact that the planned construction of a dam worth about 3 billion dollars has been blocked. This caution depends on the awareness on the part of the Myanmar elites that China very often uses the debt trap to assert its hegemony.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-fa-myanmar-nellavanzata-della-cina-nellindo-pacifico/ on Mon, 26 Oct 2020 09:17:05 +0000.